This note seeks to show that the debate on ‘Pro-Poor Growth’ is sterile and largely academic with few policy insights.

We identify birth wantedness as a source of better child outcomes. In Vietnam, the year of birth is widely believed to determine success. As a result, cohorts born in auspicious years are 12 percent larger. Comparing siblings with one another, those of auspicious cohorts are found to have 2...

Is there a gender gap in mathematics across many low- and middle-income countries? A detailed, comparable test score data is used to analyze this. Micro level data on school performance linked to household demographics shows that the gender gap appears to increase with age. It is shown that...

Legal mechanisms to achieve justice should factor in the challenges and roadblocks of its implementation, structural or otherwise, right from the stage of planning and framing the law. Law can be expected to promote justice it cannot do so in absence of its strict adherence and swift...

The paper reviews the existing evidence on migration-poverty interface in the light of the macro and micro level studies in India. It also discusses the extent, patterns, and correlates of short term migration with the help a large set of data collected from rural households in major states in...

The focus of this study is to analyze the pattern and costs of services in four areas, which critically affect most households in Kerala . The major concerns of this paper include answers to questions such as: How much did Kerala households spend for education of their children, for treatment of...

Sheds light on the realities of girls' health and wellbeing in developing countries, on the links between the health of girls and the prospects for their families, and on the specific actions that will improve health prospects for millions. This report describes the most prevalent and serious...