Spurring growth in the developing world is one stated objective of foreign aid. Another, more commonly cited, objective is reducing poverty. Generally poverty reduction and growth go hand in hand, but could aid mitigate poverty without measurably affecting growth? The authors examine how foreign...

The authors look at differences in the scope and depth of pro-competitive regulatory reforms and privatization policies as a possible source of cross-country dispersion in growth outcomes. They suggest that, despite extensive liberalization and privatization in the OECD area, the cross-country...

Are the household characteristics that are good for transition to a more diversified market-oriented development process in Vietnam also important for reducing poverty? Or are there tradeoffs? The determinants of both poverty incidence and participation in rural off-farm activities are modeled...

Using an integrated simulation model, the authors estimate the scope and speed of population-aging in China, the cost of supporting the old, and the impact of different reform options and pension arrangements. Among their conclusions: The scope and speed of population-aging in China make the...

It seems natural to expect the rich to oppose policies to redistribute income from the rich to the poor, and the poor to favor such policies. But this may be too simple a model, say the Authors. Expectations of future welfare may come into play. Well-off people on a downward trajectory may well...

Cross-country comparisons of social indicators controlling for income and/or social spending have been widely used to measure and explain"social efficiency"analogously to"technical efficiency"in production. The author argues that these methods are clouded in ambiguities about what exactly is...

The author describes a specialized and less data-intensive version of the Integrated Macroeconomic Model for Poverty Analysis (IMMPA) developed by Ag?or, Izquierdo, and Fofack (2003) and Ag?or, Fernandes, Haddad, and van der Mensbrugghe (2002). The mini-IMMPA focuses only on the"real"side but it...