This dissertation includes three empirical essays on development economics and one on the economics of education. The first essay (co-authored by Stephan Klasen) is a contribution to the debate surrounding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the on-going debate about what international...

Research into multidimensional poverty has gathered momentum in the last half decade, most notably in the aftermath of the global food and financial crises of 2007-2008. It has gained further momentum since the UNDP-OPHI launched the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR) and more recently as part...

This paper investigates if trade can help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of poverty eradication using microeconomic and macroeconomic mechanisms and the effects of trade and trade policy on consumer prices, producer prices, and wages. As these mechanisms affect the real...

The seventh goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is dedicated to ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. While energy was implicit in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs explicitly recognise the direct linkage between...

Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (CCT) have been implemented in México and Latin America since the late 1990’s. This type of program focuses on providing social government services by way of direct cash transfers to poor families that are often conditioned to the use of public education and...

This discussion paper provides an updated analysis of gendered economic inequality in high- and middle-income countries. A review of the literature demonstrates that such an analysis needs to explicitly recognize that gender, poverty and (economic) inequality are intrinsically linked....

Poverty and inequality persist in many dimensions in the developing world. In order to understand the determinants of poverty and its distribution between and within countries, it is necessary to know its dimensions and the channels through which poverty and inequality affect human well-being....