In this paper we examine the relative importance of rural versus urban areas in terms of monetary poverty and seven other related living standards indicators. We present the levels of urban--rural differences for several African countries for which we have data and find that living standards in...

This paper explores whether there exist differences in groupwise poverty in Madagascar; that is, whether there is a pattern over time of consistently poorer performance among sub-populations readily identifiable by one or more identity markers. Three key messages come out of this analysis....

We begin this paper by taking a look back at the adjustment, growth and poverty debate. Our analysis suggests that while the poor do not bear the disproportionae costs</EM> of adjustment policies, it is also the case that policy reforms have largely failed to contribute to the alleviation of poverty....