Using census data from Nepal, we examine how the marginal effects of male and female education on various household welfare indicators vary with education levels.  Parental education is associated with better household outcomes, but marginal effects vary with education level.  Higher child...

Social protection can play an important role in poverty reduction and making growth inclusive of the poor.  At times, it is also argued that social protection can directly contribute to growth and economic efficiency.  The paper revisits the evidence on the cost of social protection to reduce...

Funeral insurance has existed at least since antiguity, and it remains popular in many parts of Africa today.  Yet the study of funeral insurance as a distinct form of insurance has hitherto been neglected.  This paper presents a model in which funeral insurance combines regular life insurance...

Fatalism is considered pervasive, not least within many poor communities.  In this paper, we explore whether 'fatalistic' beliefs have implications for the attitudes and behaviour of poor rural households towards investment in the future.  We first explore the idea of fatalism drawing...

What keeps some people persistently poor, even in the context of relative high growth?  In this paper, we explore this question using a 15-year longitudinal data set from Ethiopia.  We compare the findings of an empirical growth model with those derived from a model of the determinants of...

This paper employs multiple regression analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of yield-raising techniques available to medieval farm managers (reeves) using a panel dataset of 49 manors held by the Bishop of Winchester from 1349-70.  There are three main interesting findings.  First, annual...

Consider a finite, normal form game G in which each player position is occupied by a population of N individuals, and the payoff to any given individual is the expected payoff from playing against a group drawn at random from the other positions.  Assume that individuals adjust their behavior...

This paper analyses and quantifies the effects of trade liberalisation and skill-biased technical change, both exogenous and trade-induced, on the skill premium and real wages of unskilled and skilled workers in the Mexican manufacturing sector, using industry- and firm-level data for 1984-1990...

In 1984, the world was shocked at the scale of a famine in Ethiopia that caused over half a million deaths, making it one of the worst in recent history.  The mortality impacts are clearly significant.  But what of the survivors?  This paper provides the first estimates the long-term impact...

Following the 2007 disputed Kenyan Presidential election unprecedented levels of violence erupted across the country adding to the history of troubled elections in Africa.  This paper offers quantitative and qualitative evidence on the incidence, impacts and issues that triggered electoral...