Recently, microfinance has come under increasing criticism raising questions of the validity of iconic studies which have justified the microfinance phenomenon. This paper applies propensity score matching (PSM), which has become widely used for the analysis of observational data, to the study...

Following on from the existing poverty assessments of trade liberalisation in Vietnam under "doi moi", the aim of this paper is to provide a parallel assessment of vulnerability from trade. Taking advantage of the existence of extensive household data from two different sets of Vietnamese...

In recent years, the international community has expanded efforts in programme evaluation to improve the accountability of development projects. This paper presents approaches to implementing state-of-the-art evaluations in rural electrification projects, taking into account specific challenges...

The issue of gender is getting more and more attention leading to the extent of changing development policies and strategies. Among the many current interventions, energy policy making and planning at community, national and international levels are critical agendas where gender-energy nexus...

What are the socioeconomic effects of foreign aid in developing countries? How effective is aid in promoting social capital? The paper focuses on these questions from an empirical perspective and assesses the casual effect of foreign aid on trust in Uganda. Individuals living in counties that...

Using two surveys from Bangladesh, this paper provides evidence on the effects of microfinance competition on village moneylender interest rates and households' dependence on informal credit. The views among practitioners diverge sharply: proponents claim that MFI competition reduces both the...

This paper explores the urban-rural welfare gap in 2002 and 2009/10 for the case of Sri Lanka. This was a period of high growth and falling poverty rates in the country. The paper attempts to explore three issues: (a) what are the determinants of urban and rural household welfare, (b) does the...

This paper is about the determination and prediction of permanent income in household data. Standard static welfare indicators (e.g. per capita expenditure and income) are imperfect in this respect as they typically contain a high transitory component. The framework we employ is consistent with...

Using two surveys from Bangladesh, this paper provides evidence on the effects of microfinance competition on village moneylender interest rates and households’ dependence on informal credit. The views among practitioners diverge sharply: proponents claim that MFI competition reduces both the...

This paper is about the determination and prediction of permanent income in household data. Standard static welfare indicators (e.g. per capita expenditure and income) are imperfect in this respect as they typically contain a high transitory component. The framework we employ is consistent with...