A national household survey for 2002, containing a specially designed module on subjective well-being, is used to estimate pioneering happiness functions in rural China. The variables predicted by economic theory to be important for happiness are relatively unimportant. The analysis suggests...

This paper examines the impact of mass media and information and communications technologies (ICT) as knowledge-based infrastructures on economic development. The results strongly suggest that both mass media and ICT penetration are negatively associated with corruption. This result holds across...

Standard poverty analysis makes statements about deprivation after the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. This implies that there is no meaningful role for risk as part of an assessment of potentially low states of well-being. In this paper, we introduce a concept of vulnerability, as a threat...

In recent decades there have been considerable steps forward in terms of understanding poverty. This paper identifies three `meta dimensions` of poverty, which relate to: (1) depth and severity; (2) breadth and multidimensionality; and (3) time and duration. The advances that have been made in...

Standard poverty analysis makes statements about deprivation after the veil of uncertainty has been lifted. Nonetheless, the term `vulnerability` has been used as a tool to remark that uncertainty and risk do matter. In this paper, we define `vulnerability to poverty` as the magnitude of the...

This paper aims to deepen our understanding of the determinants of income inequality in Uganda. Over the past 10 years, Uganda experienced gradual and sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. The benefits of growth, however, are not being distributed equally. The major contributions of...

Arguments for cross-disciplinary research in development studies have been applied recently to work on poverty, inequality and well-being. However, much research on these issues remains fragmented and, in particular, the intellectual barrier between economics and the other social science...

We explore how to measure poverty over time, by focusing on trajectories of poverty rather than poverty at a particular point in time. We consider welfare outcomes over a period in time, consisting of a number of spells. We offer a characterization of desirable properties for measuring poverty...

This paper applies a framework which addresses the vagueness of poverty. The `core poor` are those who are unambiguously poor. In applying the framework we use Sen`s capability approach and results from a recent survey. These results suggest that some South Africans set tough standards for...

In this paper the links from measures of consumption to welfare and well-being are discussed drawing on a study of changes in consumption in Ghana in the 1990s. It is argued that household consumption can act as an opportunity measure of welfare. The widespread distrust of such a welfare measure...