This paper reports on the economic and financial reforms in Guinea-Bissau. After a long period of recession since the beginning of 2000 followed by a slight recovery in 2007, the economy of Guinea-Bissau has entered a new growth spurt in 2008. The budget deficit, which averaged 10 percent of GDP...

This paper estimates the household income growth rates implied by food demand in a sample of urban Chinese households in 1993–2005. Our estimates, based on Engel curves for food consumption, indicate an average per capita income growth of 6.8 percent per year in 1993–2005. This...

This Joint Staff Advisory Note reviews the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Progress Report for Mongolia. Recent economic developments have been broadly favorable. Real GDP growth exceeded 10.5 percent in 2004 and is expected to remain robust, at about 5.5 percent in 2005, with a recovery in...

Recognizing that intrahousehold inequalities exist, this study focuses on the distribution of resources toward children across household types. A bargaining framework is used to test whether it matters who has control over resources. Results show that control over resources matters, as well as...

This paper uses Engel curves to estimate real income growth in Brazil. The estimated per capita household real income growth in metropolitan areas during 1987-2002 is about 4½ percent per year, well above the "headline" growth of 1½ percent obtained by deflating nominal incomes by the CPI....

This paper provides a primer on benefit incidence analysis (BIA) for macroeconomists and a new data set on the benefit incidence of education and health spending covering 56 countries over 1960-2000, representing a significant improvement in quality and coverage over existing compilations. The...

Economic policies are often judged by a handful of statistics, some of which may be biased during periods of change. We estimate the income growth implied by the evolution of food demand and durable good ownership in post-reform Brazil and Mexico, and find that changes in consumption patterns...

The national poverty reduction strategy (NPRS) is the concrete manifestation of the government's commitment with respect to Chad's eligibility under the enhanced highly indebted poor countries (EHIPC) initiative. The program will work to create conditions for sustained growth by the end of the...

This paper focuses on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. The National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper represents the result of analyses of the country’s current situation as well as a set of proposals designed to rout the...