Frequent measurement of poverty is challenging because measurement often relies on complex and expensive expenditure surveys that try to measure expenditures on a comprehensive consumption aggregate. This paper investigates the use of consumption subaggregates instead. The use of consumption...

Different approaches toward estimating the effects of agricultural growth on expenditure growth and distribution are explored. The question is how do changes in the sectoral composition of income affect the distribution of expenditures across households within a country. The study finds that...

As countries develop (and food saturation takes hold), agriculture’s role as domestic employer declines. But the broader agri-food system (AFS) also expands, and the scope for agriculture-related job creation shifts beyond the farm. Historically, technological revolutions both have shaped and...

This report analyzes the consequences for the labor force of Western Macedonia’s (Greece) decarbonization as part of Europe’s new Green Deal. Already, the region records the highest unemployment rate of the country (27 percent in 2018). A survey of contractors suggests that about 16,000 jobs...

This book contributes to the debate about the role of agriculture in poverty reduction by addressing three sets of questions: Does investing in agriculture enhance/harm overall economic growth, and if so, under what conditions? Do poor people tend to participate more/less in growth in...

Input subsidy programs carry support as instruments to increase agricultural productivity, provided they are market-smart. This requires especially proper targeting to contain the fiscal pressure, with decentralized targeting of input vouchers currently the instrument of choice. Nonetheless,...

Tracking poverty is predicated on the availability of comparable consumption data and reliable price deflators. However, regular series of strictly comparable data are only rarely available. Price deflators are also often missing or disputed. In response, poverty prediction methods that track...

Although reproductive health advocates consider family planning programs the intervention of choice to reduce fertility, there remains a great deal of skepticism among economists as to their effectiveness, despite little rigorous evidence to support either position. This study explores the...

Tracking Poverty Over Time in the Absence of Comparable Consumption Data David Stifel and Luc Christiaensen Following the endorsement by the international community of the Millennium Development Goals, there has been an increasing demand for practical methods for steadily tracking poverty. The...

This book synthesizes, and elaborates on the results of a series of country studies, completed under the Poverty Dynamics in Africa Initiative, organized by the Africa Region of the Bank. These studies made use of vastly improved household survey data, which have enhanced understanding of...