The relationship between women's health and their (physical and economic) productivity is complex and multi-dimensional. It is characterized by"flows"in both directions and a host of intervening factors. Two simple statements summarize the major directional flows: (a) women's health affects...

Relatively little attention has been paid to the problem of premature adult mortality in developing countries, despite high levels of mortality in many countries - and despite the potentially severe social and economic consequences of adult deaths. Circulatory diseases and external causes appear...

Population projections for all countries are prepared annually by the Bank's Population and Human Resources Department. They are published first in summary form in the Bank's World Development Report and later in greater detail as technical notes or working papers and, in alternate years, as a...

Over the past three decades, per capita GDP has increased worldwide. The authors examine whether this has resulted in better quality of life in developing countries. This paper documents the evolution of social indicators (health, education, nutrition), private consumption, and government...

This paper provides population projections for each country, economy, or territory in one World Bank region, as well as for nonborrower countries in the same geographic area. The Latin American and the Caribbean region is demographically at an intermediate stage. Fertility has declined to...

Population projections for all countries are prepared annually by the World Bank's Population and Human Resources Department. They are published first in summary form in the Bank's World Development Report and later in greater detail as technical notes or working papers, and in alternate years,...

Fertility decline has fueled a sharp increase in the proportion of'missing girls'in China, so an increasing share of males will fail to marry, and will face old age without the support normally provided by wives and children. This paper shows that historically, China has had nearly-universal...

Kinship systems in China, the Republic of Korea, and North India have similar features that generate discrimination against girls, and these countries have some of the highest proportions of girls"missing"in the world. The authors document how the excess mortality of girls was increased by war,...

The majority of populations in the Sub Saharan Africa region are growing rapidly. In some countries, where the average woman continues to have seven or more births, growth is as rapid as 4 percent a year. The population of the region as a whole is likely to double in slightly more than two...

The effectiveness of insecticide-treated materials had been unclear, as earlier studies had based their results on the effects on vectors rather than on human morbidity and mortality rates from malaria. In 1988 the UK Medical Research Council began a systematic trial of a combined intervention...