We use nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to investigate the large labor market height premium observed in the BHPS, where each inch of height is associated with a 1.5 percent increase in wages, for both men and women. We find that half of the premium can be explained by the...

This paper examines the consequences of social security reform for the inequality of consumption across individuals. The idea is that inequality is at least in part the result of individual risk in earnings or asset returns, the effects of which accumulate over time to increase inequality within...

We examine the impact of orphanage on the living arrangements and school enrollment of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, using data from 19 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 10 countries between 1992 and 2000. We find that orphans in Africa on average live in poorer households than...

A wide range of empirical applications rely on linear approximations to dynamic Euler equations. Among the most notable of these is the large and growing literature on precautionary saving that examines how consumption growth and saving behavior are affected by uncertainty and prudence. Linear...

A revised version was published as The Allocation and Impact of Social Funds: Spending on School Infrastructure in Peru (with Christina Paxson). World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 297-319, 2002.Education projects of the Peruvian Social Fund (FONCODES) have reached poor districts...

Continued efforts to develop high-level industrial skills in Sub-Saharan African countries may be wasteful without a more competitive environment in the industrial sector. But lack of such skills may limit the benefits to the industrial sector from future liberalization. As a result, the supply...

The proximity of industries is strongly related to inter-industry labor mobility, and there is some evidence that workers who move to closely similar industries receive higher wages. Knowledge is transmitted more easily when industries operate, and workers work, in close physical proximity.Do...

The effect of economic crises on child health is a topic of great policy importance. Paxson and Schady use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to analyze the impact of the profound 1988-92 economic crisis in Peru on infant mortality and anthropometrics. They show that there was an...

The authors examine how a government-run cash transfer program targeted to poor mothers in rural Ecuador influenced the health and development of their children. This program is of particular interest because, unlike other transfer programs that have been implemented recently in Latin America,...

This report describes the impacts of a performance-based scholarship program with a counseling component on academic success and persistence among low-income parents. Students who participated in the program, which was operated at two New Orleans-area colleges as part of MDRC's multi site...