Using household survey data, this paper estimates the mortality impact of improved water and sanitation access in order to evaluate the potential contribution of water and sanitation investment toward achieving the child mortality targets defined in Millennium Development Goal 4. The authors...

A growing literature associates poverty with biases in decision-making. We investigate this link in a sample of over 3,000 small-scale farmers in Zambia, who participated in a series of experiments involving the opportunity to exchange randomly assigned household items for alternative items of...

Performance-based financing (PBF) programs are increasingly implemented in low and middle-income countries to improve health service quality and utilization. In April 2011, a PBF pilot program was launched in Boulsa, Leo and Titao districts in Burkina Faso with the objective of increasing the...

We use unique data on direct observations of patient-provider interactions linked to detailed patient exit interviews and household surveys to study the relationship between patients' socioeconomic status and the quality of antenatal care in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We find a...

This analysis describes specific gaps in the quality of health care in Central Africa and assesses the association between quality of clinical care and mortality at age 2-59 months. Regionally representative facility and household surveys for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and...

Despite the almost universal adoption of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of sick children under the age of five in low- and middle-income countries, child mortality remains high in many settings. One possible explanation of the...

We use an original data set covering 270 natural disasters to analyze the determinants of international emergency aid. Although humanitarian need appears to be a major determinant of emergency relief payments, our results suggest that political and strategic factors play a crucial role in...

In a recent paper, Acemoglu and Johnson (2007) argue that the large increases in population health witnessed in the 20th century may have lowered income levels. We argue that this result depends crucially on their assumption that initial health and income do not affect subsequent economic...

Population aging is emerging as a major demographic trend in many countries, with potentially important implications for a variety of macroeconomic issues. Notwithstanding these challenges, population aging will likely have a comparatively modest effect on economic growth. Although the changed...

Most definitions of reproductive health, including a recent WHO effort to measure the burden of sexual and reproductive health worldwide, focus very narrowly on the morbidity and premature mortality that can be readily identified within standard medical taxonomies. Here, we draw attention to...