It is common to argue that poverty is a multidimensional issue. Yet few studies have included the various dimensions of deprivation to yield a broader and fuller picture of poverty. In this paper we discuss ethical foundations of various recent multidimensional poverty measures. An application...

This paper analyzes the trend and changes of household expenditure polarization in five Arab countries between 1975 and 2006. Applying a set of recent polarization measures developed by Duclos et al. (2004) and Wolfson (1994), we find that polarization remained stable in most countries except...

This paper investigates the association between gender and poverty in Tunisia based upon an empirical analysis of 1990 and 2000 household surveys. It also tests whether there is a widespread feminization of poverty. To achieve these goals, the paper suggests a theoretically sound method to...

While cash transfers through proxy means tests have increased over the last decade in Latin America to fight poverty, consumption subsidies remain the common form of redistributive income in most MENA countries. There may be many reasons for this such as their administrative costs, effects on...

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of tax reforms on unemployment and wages. Since the characterization of labor market is always a problematic issue, the impact of various revenue-neutral tax reforms on unemployment, wages, prices, and consumption in Tunisia are calibrated using...

This paper starts by presenting a descriptive analysis of the effects of general food subsidies on poverty in Tunisia; as revealed by the household survey data for 1990. The analysis indicates that the poorest certainly take advantage of this system, but at the price of considerable leakages to...