This paper studies the consequences of certain widespread policies for the quality and sustainability of growth. These policies cause economic inefficiency, environmental destruction and increased poverty. The paper develops a political economy model to show why the existence of such policies is...

We construct and derive the properties of an estimator of welfarewhich takes advantage of the detailed nature of information about living standards available in small household surveys and the comprehensive coverage of a census. By combining the strengths of each, our estimator can be used at a...

Wie bewältigen Haushalte den wirtschaftlichen Wiederaufbau nach einem Krieg? Sind einige Gruppen ländlicher Haushalte in einer Armutsfalle gefangen, während andere der Armut entfliehen können? Diese Fragen werden hier am Beispiel von Mosambik diskutiert, wo kurz nach der Unabhängigkeit im...

Verteilungs- und Armutsanalysen berücksichtigen häufig nicht die Vermögenswerte. Haushaltsbefragungen zeigen, dass jedem Erwachsenen in Deutschland im Durchschnitt mehr als 80.000 Euro in Form von Geld- oder Sachvermögen zur Verfügung stehen. Zwar sind die Vermögenswerte positiv mit dem...

This paper describes the construction of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Bolivia for the year 1997. Three distinctive features render the SAM a useful starting point for distributional analyses. First, production in the agricultural and services sector is split up into formal and informal...

This paper shows how distance functions, a tool typically employed in production economics to measure the distance between a set of inputs and a set of outputs, can be employed to approximate a composite measure encompassing the many dimensions of well-being. It also illustrates how to implement...

The Capability Approach has been adopted as a theoretical framework for official Poverty and Wealth Reports by the German government. For the first time, this paper provides information on the use of the Capability Approach in this reporting process to international readers. We show the...

In poor societies, asset accumulation serves as insurance. It also opens the door to wider inequality. Many societies prohibit certain types of accumulation, such as land sales or indenture contracts. This paper investigates the theoretical relationship between risk sharing, asset accumulation,...