This paper proposes a methodology for testing for whether tax reforms are pro-poor. This is done by extending stochastic dominance techniques to identify tax reforms that will be deemed absolutely or relatively pro-poor by a wide spectrum of poverty analysts. The statistical properties of the...

This paper explores the feasibility of calculating absolute poverty lines on the basis of minimum food expenditures in developed countries. It makes three important contributions. First, it demonstrates that standard statistical methods used in the developing world deliver either inadequate...

Food insecurity is a salient dimension of household poverty and a crucial issue viewed on a global or within a country level. It applies not only to less-developed countries, but also to countries of the European Union. In the European conditions, it implies that people affected by this problem...

Equivalence scales are routinely applied to adjust the income of households of different sizes and compositions. Because of their practical importance for the measurement of inequality and poverty, a large number of methods for the estimation of equivalence scales have been proposed. Until now,...

Remarkably little is known about the long-term impacts of project aid to lagging poor areas (Chen, Mu et al. 2006, 2008). This paper contributes to the debate about the role of rural transport infrastructure development in explaining the long-term rural development. In line with Grimm and Klasen...

This paper introduces a new methodology to target direct transfers against poverty. Our method is based on observable correlates and on estimation methods that focus on the poor. Using data from Tunisia, we estimate ‘focused’ transfer schemes that improve anti-poverty targeting performances....

A propitiously timed household survey carried out in Mozambique over the period 2008-09 permits us to evaluate the short-to-medium run relationship between sudden shocks to food prices and child nutrition status. We link local price inflation with child malnutrition status. We find that the...

Conspicuous consumption, specialised consumption of high visibility but without apparent economic benefit, is reducing investment in productive assets and thus hindering economic development in low-income countries. In previous research, the phenomenon was commonly explained by status-seeking...

This paper assesses the role of financial inclusion in moderating the incidence of entrepreneurship on energy poverty in Ghana. The assessment is made by using pooled data and two stage least squares. The exposition builds from the 7th (GLSS7) and 6th (GLSS6) rounds focusing on the Ghana Living...

Previous poverty assessments for Burkina Faso were due to the neglect of some important methodological issues misleading and led to the so-called ?Burkinab? Growth-Poverty-Paradox?, i.e. relatively sustained macro-economic growth, but almost constant poverty. We estimate that poverty...