Poverty is correlated with crime, but it is widely assumed that it should not be a defense. In the 1970s, Judge David Bazelon challenged this assumption, proposing a rotten social background defense, that is, how growing up under circumstances of severe deprivation can subsequently impact a...

This paper analyses the welfare effects of rural household coping strategies in post-war Mozambique. In addition, it considers appropriate government and donor policies to assist poor, war-affected farm households. The paper discusses the expected theoretical effects of war on smallholder...

Most of the earlier studies of poverty in Kenya have basically been static in nature. They have attempted to measure household welfare - incidence, gap and severity - at a point in time. Such studies are undeniably vital. However, they do not necessarily provide a good indication of welfare...

This paper examines the impact of institutional changes on poverty reduction performance during the economic reform in China. The conceptualization focuses on the marketization, governance and non government society as the primary institutions to implement poverty reductions in China. These...

We test for the existence of a Poverty Nutrition Trap (PNT) in the case of calories and four important micronutrients carotene, iron, riboflavin, and thiamine- for three categories of wages: sowing, harvesting, and other for male and female workers separately. We use household level national...

This paper (available only in Spanish) makes fresh estimates of rural poverty in Bolivia based on 1999 national survey data, and reviews the experience of rural development programs in the country during the 1990s. A substantial statistical appendix is included

Mobile money has become a lifeline for millions of poor people who have limited access to a formal banking system. It encompasses a wide range of benefits such as women’s empowerment, risk sharing, improved labor market outcomes and reductions in poverty. In this paper, we ask whether mobile...

The economic growth in India has been impressive in the last few decades, yet it continues to be a home for millions of poor. The poverty measures debate across the developing world has generated more heat than light as there is no consensus on constructing the poverty line. Characterization of...

The contribution of the present paper is threefold. First, we formally test whether the effect of calorie deprivation on wages is more significant/higher for the lower quantiles of workers. In the extant literature this is established through non-linear terms in the wage equation. A more...

Using a micro-level approach to poverty traps, this paper explores welfare dynamics among households in post-war rural Mozambique. Conceptually, the paper builds on an asset-based approach to poverty and tests empirically, with household panel data, for the existence of a poverty trap. Findings...