This paper empirically examines the effect of financial development on poverty for a sample of developing countries covering the period from 1985 to 2008. The analysis provides some evidence in favour of a mitigating effect of financial development on the poor when poverty is measured by the...

In order to understand whether a reduction in overall poverty has improved the situations of the poorest, it is crucial to distinguish them from the moderately poor population. In this paper, we explore the mechanisms to distinguish subsets of the poor in a multidimensional counting framework....

We ask whether trade can help to achieve the employment targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. The focus is on Goal 8, which is to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.” The theoretical and empirical links...

This paper assesses how legal origin influences financial development through regulation quality and the rule of law. It employs all the dimensions identified by the Financial Development and Structure Database of the World Bank. The law channels are instrumented with legal origins to account...

This paper examines the relationship between FDI inflows and welfare improvement in North African countries. Using net per capita FDI inflows and the UNDP's HDI as the principal variables, our analyses confirm the positive and strongly significant relationship between net FDI inflows and welfare...

We simulate the impact of actual food price increase between June 2006 and June 2008 on poverty across different areas and whether the household's main income source is agricultural activities. We explicitly treat heterogeneity in food price changes and the patterns of consumption and production...

This paper re-examines the relationship between FDI inflows and welfare (or poverty reduction) in Africa. Using FDI net inflows per capita and the UNDP's HDI as the principal variables, our analyses confirm the positive and strongly significant relationship between FDI net inflows and poverty...

To continue its economic growth and create new and better livelihoods, Africa must transform the productive side of its economy. Ongoing globalization — in trade, finance, and technology — opens up new possibilities for structural transformation, but also new risks as Africa's integration...

In the essay, we show how the preference of political elites for special status and power translates to an institutional structure that not only maximizes their relative share of social wealth through predation but ensure they keep as wide as possible the gap between actual development and...

The Philippines is home to about 4 million Filipino families who live below the poverty line, and to about 17 million families who live above it. Nearly half of all poor families do not meet their food needs. Despite the Philippines' fast economic growth in recent years — growing over six...