The authors report on an exercise in economic statistics. They develop a regional price index for Cote d'Ivoire building on the strengths of two independent data sources: the Cote d'Ivoire Living Standards Survey (CILSS) and the International Comparisons Project (ICP). The CILSS collected...

The author reflects on the pros and cons of using integrated household survey data in empirical analysis aimed at providing a quantitative basis for policy decisions affecting welfare, poverty, and the fulfillment of basic needs. The experience examined is that of using four years of data from...

Cote d'Ivoire's economy declined drastically in the second half of the 1980s. The incidence of poverty climbed from 30 percent in 1985 to 35 percent in 1987, and jumped to 46 percent in 1988. But how widespread was the collapse in living standards? Did a lucky few escape the decline? Using...

The author demonstrates what can happen to the welfare of households and individuals, and to poverty, in a low- to middle-income country, under structural adjustment and recession. Cote d'Ivoire was one of the first African countries to launch a structural adjustment program with support from...

The author empirically estimates how social capital affects household welfare and poverty in Indonesia. His focus: household memberships in local associations, an aspect of social capital especially relevant to daily household decisions that affect welfare and consumption. The data suggest that...

Empirical investigations of poverty in developing countries tend to focus on the incidence of poverty at a particular point in time. If the incidence of poverty increases, however, there is no information about how many new poor have joined the existing poor and how many people have escaped...

This paper investigates empirically the importance of social capital, in the form of local associations and networks, for the welfare of rural households in Burkina Faso. It draws on a unique database combining standard information on household welfare with multidimensional measures of social...