This paper examines the progressivity of social sector expenditures and taxes in eight sub-Saharan African countries. It uses dominance tests to determine whether health and education expenditures redistribute resources to the poor. The paper finds that social services are poorly targeted. Among...

The use of food aid in poverty alleviation programs has been hampered by two problems: the inability to target to touseholds in need, and the disincentive effects on agriculture. In this paper, we present econometric estimates of m Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) for households in Maputo,...

In this paper we derive a joint continuous/censored demand system suitable for the analysis of commodity demand relationships using panel data. Unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for using a correlated random effects specification and a Generalized Method of Moments framework used to...

This study explores global inequality in health status, and decomposes it into within- andbetween-country inequality. We rely on standardized height indicators as our health indicator sincethey avoid the measurement pitfalls of more traditional measures of health such as morbidity,mortality and...

We use unique data to estimate the determinants of cognitive ability among 14-17-year olds in Senegal. Unlike standard school-based samples, tests were administered to current students as well as to children no longer - or never - enrolled. Years of schooling strongly affects cognitive skills,...