The recent global increases in fuel prices threaten the gains in poverty reduction that countries like Paraguay have achieved over the past few decades. Therefore, policy makers must understand the potential distributional impacts of increases in fuel prices to evaluate the implementation of...

Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in the region and the world. Given the redistributive role of fiscal policy, this study uses recent data from the 2021 Integrated Household Survey to explore the impacts of taxes and spending on poverty and inequality in Colombia. The study...

The recent global increases in fuel prices threaten the gains in poverty reduction that countries like Paraguay have achieved over the past few decades. Therefore, policy makers must understand the potential distributional impacts of increases in fuel prices to evaluate the implementation of...

This paper analyses the marriage decisions of men and women, focusing on the added attractiveness of sanitation within the living arrangement, in rural India. We exploit district and time variation from the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which increased sanitation by 6.6 percent among...

- The current foreign worker admission system divides workers into the two categories of "professional" and "nonprofessional" workers, and is thus not very successful at resolving labor shortages at varying skill levels. - If the unskilled worker requires significant job training due to his lack...

Socioeconomic inequity in health is of concern in many developed countries. In Korea, authorities have started to recognize the need to address this issue, as evidence on its adverse consequences grew. Health inequity in children receives particular interest because of its potential long-run...

Rural households comprise a large share of the population in developing countries. This dissertation examines how the welfare of these households, whose economic activity mainly relies on agriculture, is affected by weather shocks and healthshocks in the context of West Africa and Vietnam. In...

This paper finds that informal workers are more likely to have inferior work conditions, but do not necessarily report worse subjective well-being. Starting with lower wages, but also with less regularity of hours and paid vacation, informal workers have higher incidence of envelope payments...

The availability and affordability of decent housing has become an important economic and social concern in the European Union (EU), as housing price increases in metropolitan regions have often outpaced wage increases. Housing is at the heart of growing economic divides in Europe. This is...

This brief presents the main findings from a rapid phone survey conducted by the World Bank across eight South Asian countries. The primary aim of the survey was to understand changes in the labor market among different groups. Additional questions were included on households'ability to meet...