Households in developing countries are frequently hit by severe idiosyncratic and covariate shocks resulting in high consumption volatility. A household's currently observed poverty status might therefore not be a good indicator of the household's general poverty risk, or in other words its...

With about five children born per woman and a population growth rate of 2.5 per cent per year, sub-Saharan Africa has been the world's fastest growing region over the last decade. Economists have often argued that high fertility rates are mainly driven by women's demand for children (and not by...

In this paper we analyze if an `urban mortality penalty' exists for today's developing countries, repeating the history of industrialized nations during the 19th century. We analyze the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 19 Sub-Saharan African countries for differences in child and adult...

Despite relatively sustained economic growth in at least parts of Sub-Saharan Africa over the past twenty years, the fertility transition has not much advanced in most countries in that region. We explore whether the lack of structural change can explain this slow transition. For this end, we...

The fact that Stephan Klasen can always give a precise answer to very complicated or even complex questions inspired the idea for this book. We asked 50 development economists (and friends of Stephan) around the world to answer 50 (serious and not-so serious) questions about development research...