In a recent paper in this journal [Q. Guo, L. Gao, Distribution of individual incomes in China between 1992 and 2009, Physica A 391 (2012) 5139–5145], a new family of distributions for modeling individual incomes in China was proposed. This family is the so-called Modified Gaussian (MG)...

The importance of the Pietra index in socioeconomic systems and econophysics has been highlighted by Eliazar and Sokolov (2010). In this paper, we obtain closed expressions for the Pietra index for the generalized function for the size of income proposed by McDonald (1984). This family is...

In this paper, we study global inequality in well-being taking as a theoretical benchmark the Human Development Index (HDI), which comprises variables of income, health and education. We use a two-step methodology that involves the construction of a composite index in the first step on which...

This note revisits the ideas of the so-called semiparametric methods that we consider to be very useful when applying machine learning in insurance. To this aim, we first recall the main essence of semiparametrics like the mixing of global and local estimation and the combining of explicit...

The hypothesis that ethnic diversity has a negative impact on public goods provision is widely accepted. Notably, most work on this issue fails to distinguish adequately between national versus subnational governance. We find that subnational empirical evidence in particular is inconclusive, and...

We conducted a systematic review to identify policy interventions that improve education quality and student learning in developing countries. Relying on a theory of change typology, we highlight three main drivers of change of education quality: first, supply-side capability interventions that...

This paper discusses past and current social policy strategies in the international aid architecture. From the 1990s, aid strategy and policy shifted to put a stronger emphasis on human development. This accelerated with the Millennium Development Goals and will continue under the Sustainable...

Conflict depletes all forms of human and social capital, as well as supporting institutions. The scale of the human damage can overwhelm public action, as there are many competing priorities and resources are often insufficient. What then should be the priorities for 'post-conflict' policy?...

Preventable and treatable childhood diseases, notably acute respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases are the first and second leading causes of death and morbidity among young children in developing countries. The fact that a large proportion of child deaths are caused by these diseases is...

This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico's Oportunidades programme. The switch from cash payments to electronic payments delivered via a bank account is found to have implications in terms of reallocation between...