This study employs a synthetic panel approach based on nationally representative micro-level data to track poverty and income mobility in Malaysia in 2004-16. On aggregate, there were large reductions in chronic poverty and increases in persistent economic security, but those who remained poor...

Malaysia has been grappling with understanding how many foreign workers reside in the country and thus faces challenges in formulating evidence-based foreign worker policies. This paper uses micro-level remittance transaction data collected from money transfer service providers to estimate the...

Malaysia has been grappling with understanding how many foreign workers reside in the country and thus faces challenges in formulating evidence-based foreign worker policies. This paper investigates how to use micro-level remittance transaction data collected from money transfer service...

Little is known about the extent to which public spending is targeted towards the poor in Mozambique. The objective of the present paper is to assess whether public expenditures on education and health, in particular, are successful at reaching the poorer segments of the Mozambican population....

This publication offers crucial lessons for policy makers and development experts who may be considering using small area poverty maps as tools of economic development and helps add to our array of tools for dealing with the political economy issues of poverty. It represents a major contribution...

Around the world, countries are becoming urbanized at an astonishing pace. As countries develop economically, their economies shift from mainly rural and agrarian to increasingly urban and nonagricultural. This rural-urban transformation presents both opportunities and challenges for...

"A methodology to produce disaggregated estimates of inequality is implemented in three developing countries: Ecuador, Madagascar, and Mozambique. These inequality estimates are decomposed into progressively more disaggregated spatial units and the results in all three countries are suggestive...

The role of school quality in determining educational outcomes has received much research attention in the United States. However, in developing countries, where a significant part of the school age population never attends school, policymakers must consider both quality and quantity when...

For poor countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty reduction usually requires a combination of well-distributed economic growth and increased investment in human capital, especially among the poor. Two key areas for such investment are education and health, both sectors in which the state is the...