In this paper we apply two statistical models to the measurement of polarization to Israeli income data over the past decade in order to empirically detect income classes as sub-populations of incomes concentrated around an optimal number of poles. The statistical models compared are a...

The incidence of poverty,as measured by the relative index customarily used in Israel,rose in 2005 to a level of 24.7 percent.Some reduction in poverty was evident in 2006,however,and in the year to June 2006 it reached 24.4 percent. Alternative poverty indices which consider a household poor if...

The Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) population in Israel is an idiosyncratic community. Its members are committed to the observance of the Bible and its commandments, as interpreted by its sectarian religious leaders. Haredi poverty is exceptionally high, with a share of 20% of the Israeli poor...

This paper deals with the optimal transfer of information on group identification between different data sets of an identical population. Such a need might arise frequently in the analysis of socio-economic surveys and in the implementation of social and economic policy. Due to the limited...

In this paper we study income polarization by first comparing the efficiency of two statistical models to identify the number of poles in the income distribution empirically. The statistical models used are a multi-resolution analysis (MRA) and a log-normal approach (LNA). We then apply the...

In this paper, a real-financial CGE model is employed for Bolivia to simulate the macroeconomic and distributional effects of exchange rate policy in a highly dollarized economy. Overall, dollarization appears to matter more through real than through financial-sector effects. The main...

Seasonal migration is an ever more important phenomenon worldwide, but has received little attention in empirical research. This paper investigates the choice of seasonal versus longer-term migration on a household level. We use data from Moldova, a country that is witnessing a massive...

A recent paper by Dollar and Kraay (2001) finds that higher primary educational attainment of the workforce does not increase the income of the poor except for its effect on average income. We test the robustness of their finding by using a broader measure of human capital that accounts for...

This paper provides a technical description of GEM-PIA, a recursive-dynamic computable General Equilibrium Model for Poverty Impact Analysis in individual countries. The model combines the optimizing behavior of CGE models with the asset portfolio behavior of macromodels, thereby addressing the...

This paper provides an account of the evolution of poverty and inequality during adjustment in Bolivia, covering the period 1985–99. It turns out that urban poverty declined somewhat after the initial stabilization phase that followed the hyperinflation in 1985. A similar evolution of per...