Karl Widerquist's proposal for Citizens' Capital Accounts (CCAs) is at once intellectually innovative and eminently practical, perhaps even more so than previous suggestions for creating universal asset-based welfare policies. In this chapter, I offer some suggestions for rethinking portions of...

The Albanian Ndihma Ekonomike is one of the first poverty reduction programs launched in transitional economies. Its record has been judged positively during the recession period of the 1990s and negatively during the more recent growth phase. This paper reconsiders the program using a...

In the context of continuing adjustments in the economy, the Government of Indonesia proposes to bring energy prices closer to long run marginal cost, while adequately compensating the poor. We focus on the constraints on central government policy objectives towards the poor as decentralization...

Spanish Abstract: El gasto público se vincula directamente con el bienestar social. Los recursos asignados del Gobierno permiten incrementar el desarrollo humano, mejorando las condiciones de vida sociales mediante políticas públicas (salud, educación e ingresos). El objetivo del estudio es...

This paper evaluates the effects of encouraging the selection of local politicians in India via community-based consensus, as opposed to a secret ballot election. While secret ballot elections prevent vote capture by guaranteeing voter anonymity, consensus-based elections may improve welfare by...

This project examined state government-led innovations in affordable housing through analysis of two state-level strategies and two state-level programs. The research shows effective strategies and programs rely on strong political leadership; adopt a whole-of-housing industry approach to...

Spanish Abstract: Este documento muestra la relación existente entre gasto público social por Departamen- tos en Colombia y la calidad de vida. Parte del supuesto de la existencia de una relación significativa entre calidad de vida de los departamentos colombianos y el gasto público social,...

Privatization of government services has been touted as a cost-savings approach for state agencies, promising to harness the efficiencies of market forces to overcome the perceived inefficiencies of bureaucracies. Empirical and anecdotal evidence indicates that such savings rarely materialize,...

In 1999 general assistance recipients in New York City were required to participate in a job training and outplacement assistance program. Initially, recipients were enrolled in 'waves' due to capacity constraints. The program's impact is identified using a quasiexperiment in which selectees are...

This paper contributes to providing insights into the impact of decentralisation on poverty. It starts out with an overview of which role decentralisation plays in strategies and policies for poverty eradication and derives economic and political impact channels. It concentrates on the economic...