Given a poverty line, a person who is non-poor (poor) currently may not be treated as non-poor (poor) in a vulnerable situation. This paper looks at the impact of vulnerability on the poverty line. The poverty line is adjusted in the presence of vulnerability such that the utility of a person at...

Income distribution is perceived to affect crime (Becker 1968; Thurow 1971; Merlo 2003). Consequently, economists have been modeling crime-employing inequality indicators as one of the explanatory variables, yielding mixed results. This paper argues that income polarization rather than inequality should...

The Asia-Pacific region includes a majority of the world's population and many of its most rapidly growing economies. It is also home to the world's largest number of extremely poor people, many fragile states, and unsustainable environmental practices. The region has increased its influence in...

The global economic recession is severely affecting Asian economies. Timely assessment of the economic and social impacts is critical to the formulation and implementation of policy responses. This paper presents a simple methodology of ex ante impact assessment, focusing specifically on how the...

Spatial disparities in human development : an overview of the Asian evidence / Ravi Kanbur, Anthony J. Venables and Guanghua Wan -- Methodological issues -- Poverty mapping with aggregate census data : what is the loss in precision? / Nicholas Minot and Bob Baulch -- A decomposition analysis of...

Poverty reduction in the Asia and the Pacific region in 2005-2008 had been quite significant. Despite the global crisis, an estimated 150 million people exited extreme poverty by 2008 – from 903.4 million in 2005 to 753.5 million, bringing the percentage of people living under the $1.25 per...