This paper analyzes the effects of increased trade and investment on population growth and the quality of life in the U.S. and Mexican border regions. The analysis on quality of life changes is based on 1990 and 2000 U.S. and Mexican census data. Quality of life is measured by a Border Human...

This chapter presents MAMS (Maquette for MDG Simulations), a recursive-dynamic CGE model developed at the World Bank for analysis of medium- to long-run country strategies for low- and middle-income countries, including strategies aimed at improving MDG (Millennium Development Goals) outcomes....

Purpose – The human development index (HDI) and gender-related development index (GDI) have become accepted as leading measures for ranking human well being in different countries. The purpose of this paper is to identify the planning policies that improve these indices and to also suggest...

This paper proposes a dominance approach to study inequality of well-being across countries. We consider a class of well-being indices based on the three attributes used in the HDI (Human Development Index). Indices are required to satisfy: preference for egalitarian marginal distributions of...

This study presents evidence about relations between national cultural dimensions, socioeconomic development and governance quality. Relations between Hofstede's dimensions, Schwartz cultural values, Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and UNPD Human Development Index (HDI) were analysed by...

In this paper we study income polarization by first comparing the efficiency of two statistical models to identify the number of poles in the income distribution empirically. The statistical models used are a multi-resolution analysis (MRA) and a log-normal approach (LNA). We then apply the...

China is well-placed to avoid the so-called “middle-income trap” and to continue to converge towards the more advanced economies, even though growth is likely to slow from near double-digit rates in the first decade of this millennium to around 7% at the 2020 horizon. However, in order to...

China’s population is set to age fast, owing to low fertility and rising life expectancy. With ongoing migration of the younger cohorts to urban areas the increase in the old-age dependency ratio will be even more pronounced in rural than in urban areas. Very different pension arrangements...

Overall, health outcomes in China have improved tremendously over the past three decades, especially thanks to the reduction in some traditional infectious diseases. However, death rates from chronic diseases have been on the rise, not least owing to changes in life styles and deteriorating...

In recent years, policymaking in China has put increasing emphasis on stemming the growth in inequality, which had been fairly steep since the 1980s. Policy action has taken the form of regional development measures and of reforms of various aspects of the social safety net broadly defined. The...