This paper argues that a major beneficial impact of workfare programs is through their role in allowing participants to improve their access to “credit”. Sustained program participation serves as “collateral” for households’ acquisition of informal credit, leading to the improvement in...

The world’s biggest Employment Guarantee Programme, India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been in operation in rural India since February 2006. In principle, the scheme is a self-targeted programme designed to provide 100 days of employment to rural households and to...

Abstract Using the recent estimates of rural, urban and aggregate poverty rates for 31 developing countries, the present study statistically examines the extent to which the rural sector contributes to aggregate poverty reduction. After adjusting for the effect of rural-urban migration, our...

Abstract Drawing upon panel data estimations, we have analysed the relationships among agricultural productivity, employment, technology, openness of the economy, inequality in land distribution and poverty. First, we have identified a number of important factors affecting agricultural...

This study examines whether household access to microfinance reduces poverty in Pakistan and, if so, how and to what extent. It draws on primary empirical data gathered by interviewing 1132 households, including both borrower and non-borrower households, in 2008-2009. Sample selection biases...

The present study examines whether rural non-farm employment has any poverty and/or vulnerability-reducing effect in Vietnam and India. To take account of sample selection bias associated with it, we have applied treatment-effects model. It is found that log per capita consumption or log mean...

The present study tests the twin hypotheses, namely, (a) the poverty nutrition trap hypothesis that wages affect nutritional status, and (b) the activity hypothesis that activity intensity affects adult nutrition as measured by the Body Mass Index (BMI) in the context of India. The analyses draw...

Drawing upon cross-country panel data for developing countries, the present study sheds new empirical light on dynamic and long-term linkages among growth in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, inequality and poverty. Agricultural growth is found to be the most important factor in...

This study estimates household vulnerability in the Philippines using a three-level and longitudinal linear random-coefficient model whereby vulnerability is decomposed into idiosyncratic and covariate components. Our three-wave panel data covering the period 2003-2009 allow us to analyse...