This paper reports on the construction of an International Water Poverty Index, part of the first phase of a research project into building a locally based version of the index. The purpose of the Water Poverty Index is to express an interdisciplinary measure which links household welfare with...

In developing countries undergoing liberalising economic reforms, there are typically local incumbents facing the loss of protection. Strategic lobbying by such firms for a price-capping regulatory regime is, under certain conditions, one way in which they can deter entry by competitors who are...

This paper addresses the question of the necessity to find a causal relationship between financial development and growth and whether this relationship means anything at the macro level. Over the last 50 years the debate about this relationship has swung from an initial consensus that financial...

In most sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries there is a strong connection between tradables recovery and the alleviation of rural poverty through higher farm incomes, agricultural wages, rural multiplier effects and inter-sectoral linkages. Liberalisation policies, as elaborated in the Berg...

Changes in financial policy are expected to result in the greater availability of credit as financial controls are relaxed and banking competition is increased. This ‘financial deepening’ should show up in ahigher consumption expenditure in areas where credit is often required, such as...

This paper surveys the existing literature on the determinants of household savings and credit in developing countries and examines the ways in which macro-level policies might impact on household financial behaviour.

Indian financial sector reforms initiated in 1991-92 have significantly affected user costs of assets and have resulted in significant substitution among them. Thus there is a need to develop a measure of savings that reflects household choice over assets more accurately than the simple sum. An...