This article summarizes a micro-simulation exercise for the Mexican human development program Oportunidades and presents a series of simulations of its actual and potential impact upon poverty at the national, urban and rural levels. The micro-simulation tool used for this paper makes accounting...

Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- I. Overview -- A. Objective and Scope -- B. Organization of the Report -- C. Background and Motivation -- II. Human Capital Development, Achievements, and Gaps -- A. Literacy, School Enrollments, and...

Do World Bank policy loans that are focused on social policy reform help improve social policies and institutions in borrower countries? To help answer this question, this paper provides new empirical evidence of the association between World Bank policy lending and measures of the quality of...