For more than two decades Australia has not only prospered without a recession but has achieved a higher growth rate than any Western country. This achievement has been credited to Australia's historic shift to Asia; the transformation of the relationship between these two countries is one of the...

This paper quantifies the contributions of different factors to poverty reduction observed in Bangladesh, Peru and Thailand over the last decade. In contrast to methods that focus on aggregate summary statistics, the method adopted here generates entire counterfactual distributions to account...

This note comes in three sections. First, the information required for political economy analysis of energy subsidy reforms is presented. Second, a summary is given of the information that can usually be obtained through desk research to provide the context for subsequent interviews and another...

The availability and affordability of decent housing has become an important economic and social concern in the European Union (EU), as housing price increases in metropolitan regions have often outpaced wage increases. Housing is at the heart of growing economic divides in Europe. This is...

This book proposes a simple framework for understanding the political economy of subsidy reform and applies it to four in-depth country studies covering more than 30 distinct episodes of reform. Five key lessons emerge. First, energy subsidies often follow a life cycle, beginning as a way to...

This paper describes the impact of fiscal policy on inequality and poverty, and examines recent policy changes and whether there is room for an increased role for fiscal policy in improving the well-being of the poor. Taxes and social spending reduced inequality in Croatia; however, once the...

This paper uses the 2010/11 Income and Expenditure Survey for South Africa to analyze the progressivity of the main tax and social spending programs and quantify their impact on poverty and inequality. The paper also assesses the redistributive effectiveness of fiscal interventions given the...

The World Bank has partnered with the Commitment to Equity Institute at Tulane University to implement their diagnostic tool-the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Assessment-designed to assess how taxation and public expenditures affect income inequality, poverty, and different economic groups. The...

Recent efforts at poverty alleviation emphasize increasing government spending on education. However, even if spending were perfectly targeted, it is not evident that spending by itself will lead to higher educational attainment. Bolivian household data is used in this paper to ascertain the...