As the financial crisis has spread through the world, the lack of real-time data has made it difficult to track its impact in developing countries. We use a microsimulation approach to assess the poverty and distributional effects of the crisis. In Bangladesh, Mexico, and the Philippines, we...

In 2002, in the midst of a serious macroeconomic crisis, Argentina implemented a large social program (the Programa Jefes de Hogar, PJH) that provides cash transfers to unemployed household heads meeting certain criteria. In practice, the difficulty in monitoring the unemployment requirement for...