Bangladesh has experienced rapid fertility decline and reductions in under-five mortality over the last three decades. This impact study unravels the various factors behind these changes. Economic growth has been important, but so have major public sector interventions, notably reproductive...

We provide a ‘how to’ guide to undertake systematic reviews of effects in international development, by which we mean, synthesis of literature relating to the effectiveness of particular development interventions. Our remit includes determining the review's questions and scope, literature...

Systematic reviews are currently in high demand in international development. At least 100 new reviews are ongoing or already completed on a range of topics across the board in international development, many of which were commissioned by policy-making agencies. These new reviews need to be...

This paper uses econometric estimates of the link between aid and economic growth to ask how much additional aid is required to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving global poverty by 2015, and how this aid should be allocated across countries. It first shows that a large increase in...

Many studies of development interventions are individually unable to provide convincing conclusions because of low statistical significance, small size, limited geographical purview and so forth. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are forms of research synthesis that combine studies of...

This paper presents a synthetic review of impact evaluations examining effectiveness of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions in reducing diarrhoea among children. The evaluations were conducted in 35 low- and middle-income countries during the past three decades. The paper challenges the...

This dissertation examines two problems that may arise in matching problems.The first two chapters deal with auctions for multiple units where bidders exhibitexternalities. The third chapter links risk aversion and information to unraveling inlabor markets.Auctions can lead to efficient...