This chapter offers a primer on poverty, inequality, and vulnerability analysis and a guide to resources on this topic. It is written for decision makers who want to define the type of information they need to monitor poverty reduction and make appropriate policy decisions and for the technical...

Guinea-Bissau endured a major conflict in 1998 and has suffered from persistent political instability since independence. After a brief review of indicators of governance in Guinea-Bissau and recent political developments, the objective of this Chapter is to provide results from a recent survey...

This paper examines the social opportunity cost of a hypothetical public project in Australia and compares these values with the cost of the project as measured by factor prices. Since 2001, the Australian taxation system has included an ad valorem tax, the Goods and Services Tax, however...

This article analyses the competition between cash and payment cards against the backdrop of the dual role of central banks - as issuers of cash and as institutions with a mandate to foster the efficiency of payment systems in general. It is argued that this dual role results in a number of...

Given the poor economic performance of Guinea-Bissau over the last few years, including a severe recession toward the end of 2002, poverty is likely to be high and to have risen in recent years even compared to its high postconflict level. The first objective of this chapter is to estimate the...

This article investigates the relationships among economic growth, income distribution and poverty in Brazil during the period from 2001 to 2005. Those relationships are analyzed starting from the selection of three models: one that relates the variations in the poverty indicators and the main...

We evaluate the impact of the rise in food prices during 2006-2008 on the poverty and extreme poverty rates in Mexico. We concentrate on the poor’s consumption of staple foods, and analyze the change in their consumption brought about by changed prices. We also allow households receiving...

This chapter offers a primer on poverty, inequality, and vulnerability analysis and a guide to resources on this topic. It is written for decision makers who want to define the type of information they need to monitor poverty reduction and make appropriate policy decisions and for the technical...

Indian economy has been recording impressive growth rates since 1991. This can be partly attributed to the multi-sector structural reforms aimed at enhancing productivity, efficiency and international competitiveness of the economy. The reforms have been undertaken gradually with mutual consent...

This paper shows that in Belgium, programs to prevent electricity cuts among the poor often do not reach the poorest. This is less because the poorest cannot benefit from the programs (if they apply, they almost always are granted benefits) than because they often fail to apply for the programs....