This brief investigates the differences in countries' jobs-related policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Four main patterns emerge. First, the type of labor policies adopted by countries varied greatly according to their income level. Low-income countries were more likely to implement...

Hidden hunger, or micronutrient deficiencies, is a serious public health issue affecting approximately 2 billion people worldwide. Identifying areas with high prevalence of hidden hunger is crucial for targeted interventions and effective resource allocation. However, conventional methods such...

This paper analyzes extreme child poverty ($2.15/day poverty line) trends, as well as child poverty based on the higher international poverty lines of $3.65 and $6.85. The paper provides a trajectory of extreme child poverty (children living in extremely poor households) from 2013 to 2019 (based...

While the impact of COVID-19 on Sub-Saharan African labor markets is well documented, there is suggestive evidence that urban households may have fared particularly poorly. This paper uses data from high-frequency phone surveys in 27 Sub-Saharan African countries to investigate which kinds of...

Reliable estimates of economic welfare for small areas are valuable inputs into the design and evaluation of development policies. This paper compares the accuracy of point estimates and confidence intervals for small area estimates of wealth and poverty derived from four different prediction...

This paper offers a nontechnical review of selected applications that combine survey and geospatial data to generate small area estimates of wealth or poverty. Publicly available data from satellites and phones predicts poverty and wealth accurately across space, when evaluated against census...

Can features extracted from high spatial resolution satellite imagery accurately estimate poverty and economic well-being The present study investigates this question by extracting both object and texture features from satellite images of Sri Lanka. These features are used to estimate poverty...

This paper describes the state of informal sector work in urban Sub-Saharan Africa, using household surveys from 26 countries representing 61 percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa and firm surveys from three countries. Five main conclusions emerge. First, the urban informal sector is...

This study combines pre-COVID-19 household surveys with 2020 macro data to simulate changes in household economic welfare and poverty rates through job losses, labor income changes, and non-labor (remittance) income changes during 2020 in Brazil, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, South Africa, and...

While the impact of COVID-19 on Sub-Saharan African labor markets is well documented, there is suggestive evidence that urban households may have fared particularly poorly. This paper uses data from high-frequency phone surveys in 27 Sub-Saharan African countries to investigate which kinds of...