The global spread of Islamic finance has transformed the financial systems of many Muslim countries, but analysts know little about the factors that shape individuals’ demand for Islamic finance. This paper examines the socioeconomic origins of consumer demand for Islamic financial products,...

Using rural household panel data from three Chinese provinces, this paper identifies determinants of long-term poverty and tests the duration dependence on the probability to leave poverty. Special emphasis is given to the selection of the poverty line and inter-regional differences across...

Public–private partnership (PPP) has gained popularity during the market-oriented reforms in China’s urban infrastructure sectors. This paper explores how city characteristics, spatial pressures, and other institutional forces condition the extent of liberalization reforms in local...

Using the national China Household Income Project 2007 urban survey data and a propensity score matching method, this article investigates whether welfare receipt helped enable low-income families to spend more on human capital. We find that welfare recipient families prioritized spending in...

This paper evaluates how caste influences economic comparisons in India. Using happiness data from an original panel survey, we find that both within-caste comparisons and between-caste comparisons reduce well-being. Between-caste comparisons reduce well-being three times more than within-caste...

Aquaculture is widely held to contribute to poverty reduction and food security in the Global South, but robust evidence is limited. Using nationally representative data from Bangladesh, this study analyses changes in fish consumption from 2000 to 2010. Rapid expansion of commercial aquaculture...

Affirmative action, in the form of reservation policies, to address the issues of inclusion has been in place in India for a long time. While its scope has enlarged with inclusion of new social groups, the efficacy remains a matter of debate. This paper explores if parental education is an...

This paper examines the political economy of tourism development in islands and uses Gili Trawangan, Indonesia as a case study. A longitudinal study drawing from fieldwork contributes to the discussion of how different types of power shape community development, and how the effects of hosting...

In this paper we propose a new measure of exposure to downside risk. Its reference point is the current standard of living of a household as opposed to other benchmarks such as the poverty line in the case of measures of vulnerability. Using panel data from Thailand and Vietnam we develop an...

This article investigates whether heterogeneous subgroups of female-headed households are worse off than households headed by men. It analyzes the correlates of consumption, shock exposure, and severity, as well as vulnerability to poverty. Using panel data of over 4000 rural households from...