Vietnam enjoyed rapid economic growth and a sharp reduction in child stunting in the 1990s. Economic growth can increase children's nutritional status in two ways. First, by raising household incomes, which can be used it to purchase more food, medicine and medical services. Second, by raising...

This paper is an account of the World Bank's effort to collect household-level data on poverty in developing countries and what that data says about the effects of government policies on living conditions of the poor. The main objective of the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys is...

Market reforms are generally credited with the rapid growth enjoyed by China's rural sector. This growth has not been without some cost, however, as inequality has also increased. Estimates suggest that the Gini rose from less than 0.20 to over 0.40 during this period. In this paper we go behind...

This research characterizes the biological diversity of millet crops in the semiarid regions of India at the household and village-community ( "panchayat") scales of analysis, placing that evidence in the context of local seed systems. A set of seed system parameters that span formal and...

About 10% of primary school students in developing countries have poor vision, yet in virtually all of these countries very few children wear glasses. There has been almost no research on the impact of poor vision on school performance in developing countries, and simple OLS estimates are likely...

This paper investigates why children in low income countries often delay primary school enrollment, despite the prediction of human capital theory that schooling will begin at the earliest possible age. We explore several explanations for delayed enrollment, but focus on the hypothesis that...