Using firm-level survey data for a large cross section of countries, the paper assesses the gap in labor productivity between formal and informal firms in developing countries for which comparable data are available. It also investigates the impact of competition from informal firms on the labor...

This paper compares the intergenerational mobility of educational and occupational attainment of men from disadvantaged groups (Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST)) in India with the intergenerational mobility of men outside these groups during 1983-2009. Although there has been a...

This paper examines the relationship between caste and gender inequality in three states in India. When households are grouped using conventional, government-defined categories of caste the paper finds patterns that are consistent with existing literature: lower-caste women are more likely to...

In standard economics, individuals are rational actors and economic forces undermine institutions that impose large inefficiencies. The persistence of the caste system is evidence of the need for psychologically more realistic models of decision-making in economics. The caste system divides...

The objective of this report is to present a snapshot of the welfare landscape in Djibouti that will help stakeholders understand poverty's determinants. Exploiting data from the 2017 household expenditure survey, as well as administrative and geospatial data, it provides a detailed analysis of...

This paper uses new survey data to measure the government's capacity to deliver goods and services in a manner that includes: high coverage of the population; equal access; and high quality of service delivery. The paper finds variation in these indicators across and within Indian states....

Longstanding development issues are revisited in the light of a newly-constructed data set of poverty measures for India spanning 60 years, including 20 years since reforms began in earnest in 1991. The study finds a downward trend in poverty measures since 1970, with an acceleration post-1991,...

The majority of firms in developing countries are informal, and encouraging them to register with the tax authority has proven challenging and costly. This paper argues that incomplete tax filing among registered firms constitutes an important intermediate form of informality, which can be...

This paper describes the design of a multi-stage stratified sample for the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016/17. This survey instrument will be used by the Government of Bangladesh to estimate reliable poverty and welfare statistics at three different levels: (i) annual...

The goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and working toward a more equal distribution of income are prominent in international development and agreed upon in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 10. Using data from 164 countries comprising 97 percent of the world's...