This paper constitutes the introductory essay for the special issue of Climate Change Economics, edited by Malik and Smith, forthcoming in 2012, examining adaptation to climate change in low-income countries. The paper first characterizes different types of adaptations from an economic...

Programs to reduce tra¢ c congestion and air pollution by restricting use of motor vehicles on working days have generally not met with success given existing studies of such programs in a number of cities. We conduct the Örst study of Quito, Ecuadorís three-year-old Pico y Placa program...

We put in perspective the papers in this special issue by characterizing different forms of adaptation to climate change and discussing the role of adaptation in a developing country context. We highlight adaptation decision-making under uncertainty, empirics of autonomous adaptation, and data...

In this paper, we examine major trends and potential for cooperatives in the context of four prominent socio-economic issues: the lack of jobs, economic and social inequality, educational mobility, and the priority need for innovations. We present recent data on the amount and types of job...

This paper examines the impact and potential interactions of health, education and consumption dimensions of persistent poverty at the household level. Our application is to indictors of assets, undernutrition, and illiteracy drawn from the Ethiopia Rural Household Survey (ERHS) panel data set....

We introduce new approaches to research on poverty traps, focusing on changes in patterns of equilibria over time and across regions, applied to the Ethiopia Rural Household Survey. We revisit the incidence of multiple equilibria using new nonparametric techniques; we also emphasize conditions...

What explains the extreme variations in development achievement, among LDCs, and between developing and developed countries? This paper present a schematic framework for the interpretation of some influential recent contributions to the study of the majo long-run causes of comparative...

This paper uses household panel data to provide robust evidence on the effects of BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra-poor Program in Bangladesh. Our identification strategy exploits type-1 errors in assignment, comparing households correctly included with those incorrectly excluded, according to...

Using household data from Vietnam, we provide evidence on the causal effects of education on freedom of spouse choice. We use war disruptions and spatial indicators of schooling supply as instruments. The point estimates indicate that a year of additional schooling reduces the probability of an...

Heat waves, defined as an interval of abnormally hot and humid weather, have been a prominent killer in recent years. With heat waves worsening with climate change, adaptation is essential; one strategy has been to issue heat wave warnings and undertake awareness campaigns to bring about...