Rising food prices played an important role in the acceleration of inflation across Asia and the Pacific region during 2007 and the early months of 2008. Not only is food price inflation the most regressive of all taxes, it also leads to lower growth and accentuation of income inequality....

Abstract The present study seeks to build on earlier work by identifying the factors associated with the frequency of natural disasters and the resulting mortality. Drawing together the main findings, some observations are made from a policy perspective to focus on key elements of a disaster...

Much of recent work has raised the issue that the surge in prices of foodgrains in the last two years cannot be explained satisfactorily in terms of the fundamentals of supply and demand. It has also been suggested that the part that cannot be explained in this way is due largely to speculation....

This paper examines the extent to which changes in global agricultural commodity price are transmitted to domestic prices in India and China. The focus is on short and medium-run adjustment processes using an error correction specification. In particular, we show that the extent of adjustment in...

Abstract Drawing upon panel data estimations, we have analysed the relationships among agricultural productivity, employment, technology, openness of the economy, inequality in land distribution and poverty. First, we have identified a number of important factors affecting agricultural...

Abstract Based on cross-country datasets, we find that (i) development of the rural agricultural sector is the most poverty reducing; (ii) rural non-agricultural sector also is poverty reducing in some cases, but its magnitude is much smaller than that associated with the rural agricultural...

Abstract Drawing upon a cross-country panel data for developing countries, the present study sheds new empirical light on dynamic and long-term linkages among growth, inequality and poverty. First, agricultural sector growth is found to be consistently the most important factor in reducing...

This study argues that patterns, trends and drivers of the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs) depend on the scope of financial sustainability measures and on MFIs’ inclination to either of the dual objectives of financial systems and outreach. A balanced panel data of 164 MFIs for...

The creeping effect of financial crisis and economic turmoil on African economies potentially questions the sustainability of microfinance institutions, in view of the heavy investment received both from development partners and government. This study tests the hypotheses that: (i) interacting...

years, some disadvantaged groups-the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST)- remain mired in acute poverty. The present study assesses their poverty and relative deprivation, and the underlying factors. Our analysis of the 61st round of the NSS for 2004-05 confirms higher incidence and...