Until very recently and despite human capital’s pre-eminent and empirically established contribution to economic growth, Indian policymakers planning for economic development concentrated largely on issues of capital, labour and, to a lesser extent, technology. This paper argues that India’s...

This paper utilises micro data on consumption, family composition and land ownership of nearly 70,000 rural Indian households to analyse poverty in rural India. The study, conducted at the disaggregated level of individual States, examines the impact of household size and composition, caste,...

This paper approaches the subject of labour standards from the standpoint of domestic labour market circumstances rather than international norms. The paper assesses government approaches to improving standards in the context of Indonesia's daunting 'employment challenge', and the capacity of...

This study focuses on the efficiency of minimum wage policy for poverty reduction, taking Indonesia as a case study. A simulation approach assesses who benefits and who pays for minimum wage increases. On the benefits side, the rise in minimum wages boosts incomes in households with low wage...

The Food for Education (FFE) program was introduced to Bangladesh in 1993 and has been operating for more than 8 years. This paper evaluates the effect of this program on school participation and duration of schooling using household sample survey data collected in 2000. Various evaluation...

This paper examines the role of capital controls as a macroeconomic policy tool in light of the Malaysian experience. It consists of an econometric analysis of quarterly data over the period 1990–2010 using newly constructed capital inflow and outflow policy indexes as well as analytical...

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the use of temporary controls on capital outflows as a crisis resolution measure my examining the outcome of Malaysia’s radical response to the 1997-98 financial crisis. The analysis suggests that carefully designed temporary capital controls were...

This paper argues that (i) for many developing countries, the optimal external payments regime would be a combination of an intermediate exchange rate with capital controls and (ii) the policy stance and advice of the IMF should reflect this view. The paper uses India as a case-study to...

Governments struggle with the reality that the beneficiaries of anti-poverty programs are powerless to influence policies and stem the possibility of capture of benefits by the nonpoor. Networks – social and political – are supposed to increase the ability of the lesspowerful to access their...

Despite its evident importance relatively little is known about links between Body Mass Index (BMI) and participation in workfare programs, particularly in India. Using a unique data set for the Indian state of Rajasthan for 2009-10, this paper attempts to fill this void and examines the...