This paper summarizes the literature on the impact of state subsidized or social health insurance schemes that have been offered, mostly on a voluntary basis, to the informal sector in low- and middle-income countries. A substantial number of papers provide estimations of average treatment on...

Professors Bhagwati and Panagariya in their recent book have sought to debunk what they perceive to be common mistaken perceptions about the Indian economic performance. They argue reforms centering on a more open economy of early 1990s is the primary spurt behind economic growth. India’s...

In the past decade economists have begun to carry out randomised field trials in social settings to examine effectiveness of developmental projects that ranged from micro-financing to vaccination in a school setting. There is strong recognition among economists that experimental design in a...

This article details the design of an impact evaluation of the Millennium Villages Project in Northern Ghana. The evaluation is particularly challenging because the intervention cannot be randomised; it is clustered in a group of homogeneous communities and likely to generate spill-over effects....

This paper summarizes the literature on the impact of state subsidized or social health insurance schemes that have been offered, mostly on a voluntary basis, to the informal sector in low- and middle-income countries. A substantial number of papers provide estimations of average treatment on...

The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme stands out among rural public works programmes in developing countries for its size, longevity, the generosity of its funding arrangements, and the political sophistication of its design. Its mission is highly ambitious: to supply employment flexibly...

In developing countries in particular, services are often delivered through unorthodox organisational arrangements that cannot simply be dismissed as relics of 'traditional' institutions, or as incomplete modern organisations. Some have emerged recently, and represent institutional adaptations...

The World Bank and other international development agencies have declared empowerment to be central to their anti-poverty programmes. They are vague over meaning, and may be using the term partly to advance their own organizational interests. The term may imply more political confrontation than...