The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected all states and union territories in India, but the spread of infections and the fatality rate across regions have been disproportionate. In this study, inequalities in the severity of the pandemic are examined for a 15-month period,...

This paper tests the hypothesis that microfinance reduces poverty at macro level using cross-country and panel data, based on the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) data on MFIs and the new World Bank poverty estimates. Taking account of the endogeneity associated with loans from MFIs, our...

This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by small farmers in Asia and the Pacific region in raising agricultural productivity and in diversifying into high-value commodities. About 87 percent of the world’s 500 million small farms (less than 2 hectares) are in this...

Various types of natural disasters (e.g. extreme temperatures and floods) became more frequent in 1998-09, relative to 1985-97. However, the deadliness of earthquakes rose sharply and of extreme temperatures more than moderately while that of most others (droughts, floods, storms and wildfires)...

Drawing upon new World Bank poverty data, the analysis examines the feasibility of attaining the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty (MDG1) when the interrelationships between finance, institutions, trade liberalization, growth and poverty are taken into account. The authors'...

Abstract The present study seeks to build on earlier work by identifying the factors associated with the frequency of natural disasters and the resulting mortality. Drawing together the main findings, some observations are made from a policy perspective to focus on key elements of a disaster...