Life chances explore the state of equality of opportunities in Turkey. It builds on the concepts and ideas presented in the World Development Report 2006: equity and development. The authors assess how today's distribution of wealth and the success of children in learning to read and write are...

This poverty note analyzes the usefulness of poverty maps, and how they can be constructed using census and survey data, for the use and benefit of policy makers to focus scarce development resources. The note goes on to describe various kinds of poverty maps, such as those based on indexes of...

This paper derives the skill content of 30 countries, ranging from low-income to high-income ones, from the occupational structure of their economies. Five different skills are defined.. Cross-country measures of skill content show that the intensity of national production of manual skills...

Using panel data for Peru for 1994-2000, the authors find that when households receive two, or more services jointly, the welfare increases as measured by changes in consumption are larger than when services are provided separately. The increases appear to be more than proportional, as F-tests...

Many developing countries assign local governments increasing responsibilities in fighting poverty. This requires local social policy to go beyond the execution of centrally designed and funded education and health programs. Hence, local governments and their partners have both an opportunity...

Despite the popularity and widespread implementation of school feeding programs, evidence on the impact of school feeding on school participation and nutritional status is mixed. This study evaluates school feeding programs in three northern districts of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao...

Data from three rounds of nationally representative health surveys in India are used to assess the impact of selective mortality on children s anthropometrics. The nutritional status of the child population was simulated under the counterfactual scenario that all children who died in the first...

Education is often seen as a fundamental means to improve economic prospects for individuals from low income settings. However, even with increased emphasis on basic education for all, many individuals fail to achieve basic skills to succeed in life. The book presents evidence that one core...

Uninsured risks remain extensive in agriculture and rural life--and unabated, they have substantial efficiency and welfare costs. They perpetuate rural poverty and are a continuing source of new poor. Indeed, they remain a major cause of under-investment and mis-investment in agriculture. While...

The paper contains a framework for linking social protection with growth and productivity, an updated review of the literature, new original work filling in gaps in the available evidence, and a discussion of operational implications. The paper demonstrates that there was a shift in the...