Recent economic research on international comparisons of subjective well-being suffers from several important biases due to the potential incomparability of response scales within and across countries. In this paper the authors concentrate on self-reported satisfaction with income in two...

This article examines the effects of poverty, public assistance, and family structure on school-age children's home environment and developmental outcomes.

As a result of the recent crisis in Indonesia, the question of how to conceptualize poverty is on the forefront of the nation's social and political agenda. Through an in-depth look inside the Indonesian household, this paper explores the continual tension in the poverty literature between the...

Household survey data from the Cote d'Ivoire are used to examine the impact of public policies on child height, child weight for height and adult body mass index. Economic adjuntment programs in the 1980s were accompanied by reduced availability and quality of health care services and increases...

In this paper, the author assesses the population health effects in Malaysia of air pollution generated by a widespread series of fires that occurred mainly in Indonesia between April and November of 1997. The author describes how the forest fires occurred and why the associated air pollution...

This paper presents a theory of the demand for health, health investment and longevity, building on the human capital framework for health and addressing limitations of existing models. It predicts a negative correlation between health investment and health, that the health of wealthy and...

What are the health impacts of retirement? As talk of raising retirement ages in pensions and social security schemes continues around the world, it is important to know both the costs and benefits for the individual as well as government budgets. The authors use the Survey of Health, Aging and...

The theoretical and empirical literature on parental investment focuses on whether child-specific parental investments reinforce or compensate for a child's initial endowments. However, many parental investments, such as neighborhood quality and family size and structure, are shared wholly or in...

After almost three decades of sustained economic growth, Indonesia is currently in the midst of a major economic and financial crisis. This paper seeks to contribute new evidence on three questions: who has been affected most by the crisis, how they have been affected and how they have responded...

This paper examines the impact of childhood health on a series of SES outcomes observed during adulthood. These outcomes include levels and trajectories of education, family income, household wealth, individual earnings and labor supply. The analysis is conducted using unique data that collects...