This paper provides an overview of the political and economic context under which Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades was introduced to prelude the emergence of social assistance in Latin America. The paper identifies four distinctive features of the programme that were revolutionary in their own...

While there is much interest by NGOs and environmental groups in the potential of non-timber forest products (NTFP) programs to si- multaneously achieve conservation and poverty alleviation, there is not a great deal of understanding of whether they work in practice, and how incentives and local...

The recent growth of soybean cultivation in the Brazilian Amazon has been unprecedented, even as the debate continues over its economic and environmental consequences. Based on contemporary datasets as well as our own field studies, this paper examines the social and economic costs and benefits...

Many of us associate old-age and retirement with vulnerability, both physical and economical. Even though the position of the group of elderly as a whole has improved considerably and is now no less than that of younger cohorts , poverty among elderly remains an issue worth of analyzing, also...

This paper discusses why Nicaragua is today one of the poorest countries in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Lack of sustained economic growth is viewed as the main cause of poverty in the country. The effects of political conflicts on the breaks of the long term growth path are...

The European Union coordinates and encourages Member State actions to combat poverty, and to reform their social protection systems on the basis of policy exchanges and mutual learning (‘best practices’). Some EU countries are more effective in poverty reduction than others. What can explain...

This paper explains how to build Lorenz Curves for income distributions and discusses their use for inequality measurement. A short conceptual background, a step-by-step procedure and a simple numerical example illustrate how to calculate and draw Lorenz Curves. A discussion on the use of Lorenz...

This paper illustrates how Crossing Generalised Lorenz (GL) curves can be used to identify the best income distribution on social welfare grounds within a set of alternative income distributions generated by different policy options. It starts by illustrating two alternative income distributions...

The paper is concerned with poverty in Romania during a period of economic growth (2000-2008). The poverty incidence and profile before financial and economic crisis and the evolution of poverty in the context of economic growth and of a strong increase of households income have been studied,...

This paper illustrates how Lorenz Curves can be used to identify the best income distribution on social welfare grounds, within a set of alternative income distributions generated by different policy options. After highlighting some drawbacks of using specific functional forms of the Social...