This study uses the Viet Nam Living Standards Survey of 1992-93 to examine the association between household living standards and the level of access to various infrastructural services.

Though Vietnam has made impressive progress in providing widespread access to basic social services, the quantity and quality of the country's social service provision have shown signs of deterioration within the last two decades. This paper examines the changing role of the public sector in...

This discussion paper constructs a consistent, nationwide poverty profile of Cambodia to support the government's effort to strengthen the design of poverty reduction policies. Basic data are given on the level and distribution of living standards as measured by per capita household consumption...

Despite impressive success in improving living conditions in many Caribbean countries, poverty still persists throughout the region. This study seeks to improve our understanding of poverty in the Caribbean and the current efforts to address it. It analyzes the causes and characteristics of...

Comparison between Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and East Asia indicates that gender inequality in education and employment is estimated to have reduced SSA's per capita growth in the 1960-92 period by 0.8 percentage points per year. Therefore reducing gender-based asset inequality in SSA is an...

This report analyzes the evolution of poverty and inequality in the LAC region from 1986 to 1996 with projections to 1998. It reviews the policies which have been advocated or implemented to reduce poverty. The report combines the results of new empirical work using household surveys from 12...