How rapidly will child undernutrition respond to income growth? This study explores that question using household survey data from 12 countries. In addition, data on the undernutrition rates since the 1970s available from a cross-section of countries are employed in this investigation. Both...

Household food security is an important measure of well-being. Although it may not encapsulate all dimensions of poverty, the inability of households to obtain access to enough food for an active, healthy life is surely an important component of their poverty. Accordingly, devising an...

"This paper uses panel data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi to examine the impacts of disasters on dynamic human capital production. Our empirical results show that accumulation of biological human capital prior to a disaster helps children maintain investments during the post-disaster...

"This paper uses panel data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi to examine the impacts of natural disasters on schooling investments, with a particular focus on the roles of ex-ante actions and ex-post responses. We find that the importance of ex-ante actions depends on disaster risks and the...

The response of local markets to sectoral and macroeconomic policy changes is a key determinant of the long term impact of policy reforms on reforming economies. In other words, changes in arbitrage costs that are associated with policy reforms as well as the level of integration among local...

Agricultural exports, which have traditionally been the mainstay of African economies, have weakened since the 1970s, giving rise to pessimism among policymakers about the prospects for long-term development of overseas export markets. As a result, policies aimed at encouraging trade between...

African countries tend to be affected by global agricultural policies in the same way as other economies but with much more severe economy-wide repercussions... The present discussion paper 1) examines the vulnerability of Africa economies with respect to global agricultural trading policies and...

"Starting in the mid-1990s, Africa embarked upon its longest period of sustained, positive per capita income growth since the 1960s. This growth recovery has made a dent in poverty and holds out hope that a number of African countries may reach the Millennium Development Goal targets for poverty...