This paper applies Albert Hirschman's exit-voice framework to the problems of education coverage and quality in Latin America. It argues that the combination of low direct taxation and high levels of private primary enrolment provides exit options for the wealthy and reduces their incentive to...

This article sets out a proposal to measure psychological and subjective states of well-being in individual and household surveys. In particular, it proposes a shortlist of seven indicators, and a module containing the relevant questions needed to construct them. The indicators address both...

Public spending has effects on growth and distribution that are complex to trace and difficult to quantify. But the composition of public expenditure has become the key instrument by which development agencies seek to promote economic development. In recent years, the development assistance to...

This paper uses econometric estimates of the link between aid and economic growth to ask how much additional aid is required to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving global poverty by 2015, and how this aid should be allocated across countries. It first shows that a large increase in...

In this paper, we examine if there are gender differences in schooling attainment and the extent to which these differences are exacerbated for rural children in Egypt. Using a nationally representative cross-sectional survey, our estimation results find strong support for the hypothesis that...

This paper focuses on the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on skill inequality amongst countries. New growth models and international business studies predict that when countries liberalize their trade and investment regime in an environment of imperfect technology transfers, they will...

The aim of this special issue is to draw attention to “missing dimensions” of poverty data—dimensions that are of value to poor people, but for which we have scant or no data. Amartya Sen frames development as the process of expanding the freedoms that people value and have reason to...

Through a case study of Hindu nationalism in India, this paper explores how development programmes serve as the site of construction of, as well as contestation over, religious identity. The participation of low-caste Dalits and tribal Adivasis in the mass violence perpetrated against Muslims in...