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Utility-Consistent Poverty in Madagascar, 2001-10Part of Book Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Blog
Perspectives for Busan: From ReComTony Addison, Lucy Scott, and Annett Victorero Aid effectiveness was a recurrent theme during the UNU-WIDER conference on ‘Foreign Aid: Research and...
Working Paper
Threshold and interaction effects in the trade, growth, and inequality relationshipThis paper examines the relationship between trade (exports), growth, and inequality, using a panel of 100 countries over 30 years (1980 to 2010). As there is no clear theoretical relationship between trade (exports) and inequality, and as inequality...
Working Paper
Social capital, political connections, and household EnterprisesSocial capital and political connections can play an important role in developing countries where markets fail and institutions are weak. This paper explores their role in household micro-enterprise operation and success in the rural low-income...
Working Paper
Tenure Insecurity, Climate Variability, and Renting-Out Decisions Among Female Smallholder Farmers in EthiopiaLand tenure arrangements in Africa are generally skewed in favour of males. Compared to males, female plot owners face complex sets of constraints and systemic high tenure insecurity which culminate in low yields. In order to obtain better returns...
Working Paper
South African Labour Market Transitions During the Global Financial and Economic CrisisThis paper studies individual-level labour market transitions and their determinants in South Africa during the zenith and aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis using 2008 to 2010-2011 panel data from the National Income Dynamics...
Working Paper
The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes on Household Work Decisions in GhanaA cash transfer programme ‘Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty’ has been implemented with the aim of addressing poverty and vulnerability in Ghana. This study looks at the impact of this conditional cash transfer programme on households’ supply of...
Working Paper
Impact of Income and Non-Income Shocks on Child LabourThis paper investigates the impact of income and non-income shocks on child labour using a model in which the household maximizes utility from consumption as well as human capital development of the child. Two types of shocks are considered...
Working Paper
The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern AfricaWe examine the implications of the rise of a middle class in East and Southern Africa for food consumption patterns and the food system. A unique classification of food items shows that highly processed food has one-third of the purchased food market...
Working Paper
Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change in UgandaThis paper hypothesizes that adaptation to climate change is influenced by the gender of the decision maker of the household. Using a two-wave household panel survey dataset, choice of adaptation strategies employed by female- and male-headed...
Working Paper
Learning to Export and Learning by ExportingIn this study, we investigate the relationship between exporting and firm performance using a longer panel dataset of Ethiopian manufacturing firms for the period 1996−2009. We test two hypotheses regarding exporting: selection into exporting versus...
Blog
On Aid and Growth: Reflections ahead of Busan
Finn Tarp This is the first in a series of articles that Angle will be running before and after the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan...
Journal Special Issue
Aid to AfricaThe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) give aid to Africa a new emphasis. Yet aid flows to Africa have trended downward over the last decade, and as a consequence more Africans now live in poverty. This is especially true of Sub-Saharan Africa. Any...
Journal Article
Tenure Insecurity, Climate Variability and Renting out Decisions among Female Small-Holder Farmers in EthiopiaPart of Journal Special Issue Economics of climate change impacts on developing countries
Journal Article
Optimum Fisheries Management under Climate VariabilityPart of Journal Special Issue Economics of climate change impacts on developing countries
Working Paper
The impact of aid on total government expendituresAid is said to be fungible at the aggregate level if it raises government expenditures by less than the total amount. This happens when the recipient government decreases domestic revenue, decreases net borrowing, or when aid bypasses the budget...
Working Paper
Liberalized trade policy and inequalityThe phased elimination of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement has been one of the most compelling trade policy reforms of the early twenty-first century, and has brought in significant changes in the industrial structures of the countries of the global south...
Working Paper
Health shocks and the intergenerational transmission of inequalityThis paper explores the intergenerational effects of parental health shocks using longitudinal data from the Young Lives project conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is found that health shocks to poorer parents reduce investments in children...
Working Paper
Reference groups and the poverty lineA recent trend in the study of poverty is to consider a relative poverty line, one that is responsive to the nature of the income distribution. We develop an axiomatic approach to the determination of an amalgam poverty line. Given a reference income...
Journal Article
Growth of African EconomiesRecent evidence from an exhaustive political-economy study of growth of African economies—the Growth Project of the African Economic Research Consortium—suggests that ‘policy syndromes’ have substantially contributed to the generally poor growth in...
Working Paper
Fast-Food Consumption and Child Body Mass Index in ChinaThe rapid economic growth experienced within the past two decades in China highly correlates with childhood overweightness. The epidemic has become an issue of grave concern. A principal factor considered to be responsible for the epidemic in the...
Working Paper
Growth, Poverty and Inequality in RwandaThis study focuses on growth, poverty and inequality in Rwanda. We take a broad perspective, in two respects. First, we consider a long time period so as to compare the current situation with the pre-war situation, allowing us to assess whether the...
Working Paper
Scoping Paper on Kenyan ManufacturingThree major policy regimes, namely import substitution, market liberalization and export promotion have greatly influenced Kenyan industrialization since independence in 1963. Overall, import substitution strategy was successful in establishing some...
Working Paper
Measured as Poor Versus Feeling PoorIn this paper, we compare subjective and money-metric measures of poverty in South Africa using data collected in the 2008/09 Living Conditions Survey. In addition to collecting detailed information on expenditure, the survey asked respondents to...
Working Paper
The Main Obstacles to Firms’ Growth in SenegalProductivity gains are the prime engine of economic growth. This paper uses a rich amount of firms’ accounting information from the Single Information Collecting Centre in Senegal over the period 1998-2011. To investigate the two main obstacles to...
Working Paper
Consumption Bundle Aggregation in Poverty MeasurementOfficial poverty figures in Uganda are flawed by the fact that the underlying poverty lines are based on a single national food basket that was constructed in the early 1990s. In this paper, we estimate a new set of poverty lines that accounts for...
Working Paper
Skills-Biased Labour Demand and the Pursuit of Inclusive Growth in South AfricaThis paper examines the changing nature of occupational labour-market trends in South Africa and the resulting impact on wages. We observe high levels of demand for skilled labour that have intensified a trend already established before 1994. Over...
Working Paper
Aid and Growth in Sub-Saharan AfricaThis paper is a contribution to the literature on aid and growth. Despite an extensive empirical literature in this area, existing studies have not addressed directly the mechanisms via which aid should affect growth. We identify investment as the...
Working Paper
Utility-Consistent Poverty in Madagascar, 2001-10We use Arndt and Simler’s (2010) utility-consistent approach to calculating poverty lines to analyse poverty in Madagascar in 2001, 2005 and 2010. Because two major political crises occurred between the survey periods, the snapshots of national...
Working Paper
Utility-Consistent Poverty in Ethiopia, 2000–11We use Arndt and Simler’s utility-consistent approach to calculating poverty lines to analyse poverty in Ethiopia in 2000, 2005, and 2011. Poverty reduction was steady but uneven, with gains greatest in urban areas in the first half of the decade...
Working Paper
Development as DiffusionWe consider economic development of sub-Saharan Africa from the perspective of slow convergence of productivity, both across sectors and firms within sectors. Why have ‘productivity enclaves’, islands of high productivity in a sea of smaller low...
Working Paper
The Effect of Climate Change on Economic GrowthThis paper is a contribution to the empirics of climate change and its effect on sustainable economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data on two climate variables, temperature and precipitation, and employing panel cointegration techniques, we...
Working Paper
Fundamental Economic and Social ChangeThe transition from plan to market has fundamentally transformed the social structure in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. The small Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan exemplifies these changes.Using data from nationally...
Working Paper
The Fiscal Effects of Aid in GhanaAn important feature of aid to developing countries is that it is given to the government. As a result, aid should be expected to affect fiscal behaviour, although theory and existing evidence is ambiguous regarding the nature of these effects. This...
Working Paper
Advancing Small Area EstimationThe poverty mapping methodology for estimating welfare rankings from small areas has proven to be useful in guiding allocation of government funds, regional planning, and general policy formulation. Nevertheless, poverty mapping also suffers from a...
Working Paper
Optimum Fisheries Management Under Climate VariabilityIn most coastal developing countries, the artisanal fisheries sector is managed as a common pool resource. As a result, such fisheries are overcapitalized and overfished. In Ghana, in addition to anthropogenic factors, there is evidence of rising...
Working Paper
Infrastructure and Climate ChangeThe African Development Bank has called for US$40 billion per year over the coming decades to be provided to African countries to address development issues directly related to climate change. The current study addresses a key component of these...
Working Paper
The Uncertainty of Debt Service Payments and Economic Growth of HIPCsThis paper investigates whether, and to what extent, the uncertainty with respect to the annual debt service payments may adversely affect economic growth of the group of highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs). We find supportive evidence for this...
Working Paper
Assessing the Risk of Cyclone-Induced Storm Surge and Sea Level Rise in MozambiqueThis article considers the impact of sea level rise and storm surge on the port cities of Maputo and Beira in Mozambique. By combining a range of sea level rise scenarios for 2050 with the potential maximum storm surge level for the current 100-year...
Working Paper
Fiscal Policy and Private Investment in Less Developed CountriesThis paper analyses the impact of fiscal policy on private investment for a sample of thirty-three LDCs. The paper makes a number of important contributions to the existing empirical literature. Its main contribution is that it is the first attempt...
Working Paper
Small States in a Global EconomySmall states have always been more vulnerable in the global economy. This is so because trade comprises a larger proportion of their economic activity, and because they lack the power to set the terms or make any of the rules that govern...
Working Paper
Globalization, Technology Transfer, and Skill Accumulation in Low-Income CountriesGlobalization has drastically improved access of technological latecomers to advanced technologies and provides a unique opportunity for low-income countries to raise per capita income. This paper shows that low-income countries as a group have in...
Working Paper
Does the HIPC Initiative Achieve its Goal of Debt Sustainability?This paper examines the question if the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative provides a good basis for the HIPCs to exit from repeated debt rescheduling. Building on other reviews of the HIPC Initiative, the paper begins with a short...
Working Paper
The Effect of IMF and World Bank Programmes on PovertyStructural adjustment, as measured by the number of adjustment loans from the IMF and World Bank, reduces the growth elasticity of poverty reduction. Growth does reduce poverty, but I find no evidence for a direct effect of structural adjustment on...
Working Paper
Cross-country Diffusion of the InternetThis paper investigates the factors which determine the diffusion of the Internet across countries. The Gompertz model of technology diffusion is estimated using data on Internet hosts per capita for the years 1995-2000. For a sample of the 0ECD...
Working Paper
Agricultural Supply Response and Poverty in MozambiqueThis paper identifies the key causal factors behind farmers’ marketing decisions in Mozambique. A two-step decision making process is modelled. Farmers decide, first, whether or not to participate in the market and, second, how much to market. The...
Working Paper
The Impacts of the Food, fuel and Financial Crises on Households in NigeriaThis paper examines the impacts of the financial, food and fuel crises on the livelihoods of low-income households Nigeria. It uses primary household level data from Nigeria to analyse the impacts of induced price variability on household welfare...
Working Paper
The Impact of External Debt on Economic Growth in KenyaA group of low-income countries classified as HIPCs have continued to experience difficulties in managing and servicing their huge stocks of external debt. Most of these countries including Kenya are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The relatively high level...
Research Brief
What is the Effect of Aid on Primary Enrolment and Quality of Education?An increase of education aid by one per cent increases the rate of primary education enrolment by 0.06 percentage points. The most robust effect on primary enrolment is obtained by aid to the category ‘education facilities and training’. High levels...
Research Brief
The Impact of Foreign Aid on the Fiscal Behaviour of the Ugandan GovernmentForeign aid is a significant element of Uganda’s long-run fiscal system. Aid is associated with increased tax collection effort and public spending in Uganda. Development assistance is also associated with reduced domestic borrowing in Uganda. Aid is...
Research Brief
The Effectiveness of Aid to Women’s Political Participation in MENAOfficial development assistance to women’s equality organizations and institutions is effective in increasing women’s political empowerment. In contrast, aid targeting reproductive health and family planning does not appear to impact women’s...
Research Brief
Impact of Aid for Health and Education on Gender Equity and Human DevelopmentInitial high human development index scores and per capita income have a strongmimpact on the outcomes of aid to the health and education sectors. An increase in the share of the government budget allocated to education and health improves overall...
Research Brief
How to Promote Sustainable Jobs in MozambiqueStrong economic growth has not turned into poverty reduction in Mozambique due to stagnation in job creation. While the country sees great growth potential from natural resources, this industry is unlikely to generate many jobs as it is not labour...
Research Brief
A Meta-Analysis of the Literature on Aid and GrowthIn 2008 Doucouliagos and Paldam published a paper, hereafter known as DP08, based on a meta-analytic approach to the aid-growth question. Working with a database including 68 studies on the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth they...
Journal Article
The Economic Legacy of Civil WarPart of Journal Special Issue Entrepreneurship and Conflict
Research Brief
Aid Effectiveness in 36 African CountriesThe question of whether aid is effective in promoting growth is a controversial one. Views range from those who are highly skeptical that aid has any effect on growth at all, to those who believe that aid can play a significant role in promoting...
Working Paper
Aid, Political Business Cycles and Growth in AfricaThis paper develops a model of opportunistic behaviour in which an incumbent government resort to expansionary fiscal and/or monetary stimuli to foster economic growth and thus, maximize the probability of re-election. Using a panel dataset of 51...
Blog
What Mozambique Can Do to Achieve Rapid Economic and Social Progress
In the more than two decades since democratic elections signalled a new era in Mozambique, a great deal has been accomplished. Nearly all development...
Working Paper
The Impact of Foreign Aid on Economic Growth in ECOWAS CountriesThis paper investigates the impact of foreign aid on economic growth in member countries of the Economic Community of West African States using panel data for 1990-2009 and a three equation simultaneous-equations model. The effect of foreign aid on...
Working Paper
Determinants of Foreign Aid in Family PlanningThe Mexico City Policy (MCP) prohibits the United States Agency for International Development from providing aid to international non-governmental organizations that provide abortion-related services. This paper employs a panel data of 151 developing...
Journal Article
Aid and GrowthSome recent literature in the meta-analysis category where results from a range of studies are brought together throws doubt on the ability of foreign aid to foster economic growth and development. This paper assesses what meta-analysis has to say...
Working Paper
Aid and GrowthSome recent literature in the meta-analysis category where results from a range of studies are brought together throws doubt on the ability of foreign aid to foster economic growth and development. This paper assesses what meta-analysis has to say...
Working Paper
Education Is Good for the PoorA recent paper by Dollar and Kraay (2001) finds that higher primary educational attainment of the workforce does not increase the income of the poor except for its effect on average income. We test the robustness of their finding by using a broader...
Working Paper
Institutional Framework and PovertyThis paper focuses on the role of ‘institutions’ in poverty alleviation, where both poverty and institutions are interpreted broadly. The broadening of the poverty notion is important at least from the policy perspective. Even if one were convinced...
Working Paper
Reaching the PoorCombining data from both, a nationwide standards of living survey (LSMS) and a national population and housing census, this paper generates a disaggregated map of poverty and living conditions in Mozambique. This analytical tool helps to overcome a...
Working Paper
Inequality and Economic GrowthAll of the recent empirical work on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth has used inequality data that are not consistently measured. This paper argues that this is inappropriate and shows that the significant negative...
Working Paper
Are Inequality and Trade Liberalization Influences on Growth and Poverty?There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the relationship between income inequality and growth, manifested in a number of important publications. In parallel with this, concern with the impact of economic reform and globalization on...
Working Paper
Assessing the Inclusiveness of Growth in AfricaIn this study, we assess the inclusiveness of growth by tracking the yearly percentage change in the household consumption of individuals over different growth spells in Cameroon, Senegal, and Tanzania. With cross-sectional data, we track the...
Journal Article
Foreign Direct Investment in AfricaPart of Journal Special Issue FDI to Developing Countries
Book Chapter
Educational Expansion and Income DistributionPart of Book Growth, Inequality and Poverty
Book Chapter
A Decomposition of Inequality and Poverty Changes in the Context of Macroeconomic AdjustmentPart of Book Growth, Inequality and Poverty
Book Chapter
The Impact of Financial Openness on Economic IntegrationPart of Book Financial Development, Institutions, Growth and Poverty Reduction
Book Chapter
External Debt, Growth and the HIPC InitiativePart of Book Debt Relief for Poor Countries
Working Paper
Out with the Sleaze, in with the EaseImproved governance and lower start-up costs may not be sufficient for encouraging the type of entrepreneurship that matters for economic growth. Using panel data on 60 countries spanning the period 2003-07 this paper establishes that (i) opportunity...
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