Since 1990, 2.1 billion people in the world gained access to improved sanitation. However, 2.4 billion people still do not use a basic toilet. We examine whether the country differences in the sanitation index existing in 1990 has been reduced and if so, how fast. We deploy the convergence...

This paper employs a multidimensional approach to gauge the degree of regional integration and analyze impact on growth, inequality, and poverty. It constructs a multidimensional regional integration index (MDRII) series that embodies six key facets of regional integration: (i) trade and...

The HICP is a consumer price index which was designed to provide measures of inflation in EU member states calculated using similar methods and thus comparable one with another. The HICP now tracks the inflation rates covering over 500 million Europeans, including the UK, and is also produced by...

1. Background to the HICP -- 2. First Meeting of the HICP Working Party -- 3. Guiding Principles: Framework Regulation -- 4.Interim Indices of Consumer Prices (IICP) -- 5.Launch of the HICP -- 6.Classification of Household Consumption Expenditure -- 7.Coverage of the HICP: What, Where, Who? --...

Sustainable Development Goals adopted by The United Nations seek to protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species by 2020. Several countries even in the 1990s began expanding species protection to reach the 2020 goal early. This research investigates whether countries with low level...

This paper uses index number theory to disentangle changes in aggregate retail interest rates due to changes in individual component rates ("interest rate effect") from those caused by changes in the weights of each component ("weight effect"), on the basis of the "difference" index numbers...