The authors use new data from Brazil and Mexico to analyze relationships linking economic development, the size distribution of manufacturing plants, and exposure to industrial pollution. For lack of data, prior work in this field has been limited largely to water pollution and medium-size...

The authors examine whether financial development boosts the growth of small firms more than large firms and hence provides information on the mechanisms through which financial development fosters aggregate economic growth. They define an industry's technological firm size as the firm size...

Education attainment levels increased dramatically for Mexico's labor force in the 1980s and early 1990s. In parallel, the country experienced a pronounced increase in earnings inequality from 1984-94, reflected in a higher dispersion of wages and an absolute decline in the real incomes of less...

Within a short span of human history, a secular decline in fertility has taken place around the world. The timing and pace of this decline correspond broadly with changes in sociopolitical institutions indifferent parts of the world. The author hypothesizes that this shift in childbearing...

The purpose of this paper is to identify public policy and program interventions that can increase real rural wage rates and hence reduce rural poverty. Rural wages can only increase if the demand for rural labor grows faster than its supply. The report states that whether public policies...

In recent years an extensive body of literature has emerged on the definition, measurement and analysis of poverty. Much of this literature focuses on analyzing poverty at the national level, or spatial disaggregation by general categories of urban or rural areas with adjustments made for...

It has long been recognised by observers of public health and population policy that the nutritional condition of individual mothers and children, and the fertility histories of individual women, are strongly associated with the position or status of those individuals in their society. It is now...

The importance of a country's"investment climate"for economic growth has recently received much attention. The authors address the general lack of appropriate data for measuring the investment climate and its effects. The authors use a new survey of 1,500 Chinese enterprises in five cities to...

Developing countries have been quite successful at expanding school enrollment, especially at lower levels. But for any given level of educational efficiency, increased enrollments require inreased resources, in order to maintain quality. If those resources are not forthcoming, the increase in...

This paper evaluates the Profamilia's outreach effort of 1986. Profamilia is an affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and provides more than 60 percent of Colombia's family planning services. This paper focuses around the question of Profamilia's ability to provide more...