The paper discusses challenges in analyzing the costs of household cooking methods (fuels and associated stove technologies) in lower-income countries, and sources of divergence between observed and true social costs. The challenges in assessing social costs include valuation of household time,...

Abstract: Die internationale Entwicklungszusammenarbeit hat sich in den zurückliegenden Jahren konzeptionell und strukturell tiefgreifend verändert. Probleme wie Klimawandel, grenzüberschreitende Migrationsströme, Terrorismus und zerfallenden Staaten erfordern neue Strategien, Formen und...

Economic sanctions, and the suspension of budget support in particular, are supposed to pressure target governments to comply with donors' demands by putting spending commitments at risk. We argue that this is too simplistic since governments have more fiscal levers at their disposal. The case...

Public spending often increases at the end of fiscal years. This is undesirable because late spending tends to be inefficient. The causes for these spending spikes are however poorly understood. This paper offers a novel identification strategy that relies on the historic variation in countries'...

This study evaluates the impact of Microenterprise Development (MD) assistance on the labor supply, income, expenditure, savings, and capital investment of beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya, the Philippine government's conditional cash transfers (CCT) program. The assistance is provided by the...

Natural gas connections could bring substantial benefits to poor households in Colombia.compared with other fuels typically used for cooking, natural gas is safer, less expensive, and less environmentally damaging. But even though gas is more affordable, connection fees can put the cost of...