The effects of poverty in childhood can last a lifetime. Research shows that children living in poverty have lower levels of health and wellbeing, attain lower levels of education, have lower levels of occupational attainment and are more likely to be poor in adulthood. In this report, we focus...

This paper summarizes the approach used to estimate monetary poverty for Pakistan in 2019-20 at the district level. The small area estimation method is used to impute welfare from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2018-19 into the Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey...

The European Union has improved living standards, yet welfare disparities persist across regions, countries, and demographic groups. This paper uses data from European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys and the at-risk-of-poverty or social...

This paper investigates the impact of a large-scale poverty alleviation program targeted at the 62 poorest districts in Viet Nam. The analysis of multiple data sets spanning the past 20 years uses a regression discontinuity design with district fixed effects. The findings do not reveal...

In the fiscal year 2018/19, 21.9 percent of the population in Pakistan lived below the national poverty line. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic, devastating floods in 2022, and a macro-fiscal crisis with record inflation have profoundly impacted economic activity and income-earning...

The economy of Kazakhstan has performed strongly since the turn of the century, growing at an annual rate of 4.7 percent from 2006 to 2021. Sustained economic and productivity growth brought higher incomes and a period of prosperity. Between 2006 and 2021, the per capita gross domestic product...

Ethiopia has seen many changes since 2016, which until now, has been the reference year for data about the level and pattern of poverty in the country. The narrative around poverty was that years of high growth resulted in a significant reduction in poverty, but by less than expected because...

Since intra-household resource distribution is unobserved, it is difficult to compare how women and children fare across countries. To address this, we analyze 45 household expenditure surveys from predominantly low- and middle-income countries, i.e. an international sample of around 2.4 million...

Whether gender-targeted cash transfers effectively redistribute resources to women and children in poor households remains an open question. We examine Uruguay’s largest social assistance program, Asignaciones Familiares (AFAM), which is directed at poor families with children and paid to...

The effects of poverty in childhood can last a lifetime. Research shows that children living in poverty have lower levels of health and wellbeing, attain lower levels of education, have lower levels of occupational attainment and are more likely to be poor in adulthood. In this report, we focus...

Joint programming, also referred to as convergence, in social protection and economic inclusion interventions has emerged as a critical strategy for addressing persistent poverty in the Philippines. Despite the government's ambitious target to reduce poverty from 18.1% in 2021 to 9% by 2028,...

This paper examines the role of social protection in mitigating the adverse effects of conflict on household welfare. We assess the impact of a graduation intervention linked to Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme, focusing on Amhara, a region severely affected by the Tigray conflict....

Zambia is simultaneously amongst the poorest and the most unequal countries in the world. In 2022, 64.3 percent of the population - about 12.6 million individuals - was living on less than US$2.15 a day. This level is not only the 6th highest in the world but it is also misaligned with the...

Panamá ha sido uno de los países de más rápido crecimiento en la región, con una rápida expansión económica acompañada de una importante reducción de la pobreza. Impulsada por la inversión pública y privada, así como por la acumulación de mano de obra, la economía panameña...

Esta Evaluación de la Pobreza y la Equidad en México revisa la evidencia sobre la pobreza y la equidad en México durante las últimas dos décadas, la compara con la experiencia internacional comparable e identifica un conjunto de áreas críticas de intervención política para responder a...

The Middle East and North Africa faces significant climate challenges, such as increasing temperatures, heightened flood risks, frequent droughts, and growing air pollution issues. These challenges are compounded by the large proportion of the population living below the poverty line in some...

Public works programmes (PWPs) are widely used social protection instruments in low- and middle-income countries. Participants carry out temporary, labour-intensive works in exchange for cash or in-kind compensation. The available empirical evidence indicates that these programmes are usually...

Purpose - This study aims to develop an econometric analysis of how modern agriculture can be a fundamental instrument for reducing the levels of multidimensional poverty in Uganda. It demonstrates the importance of agriculture in reducing inequalities amongst the poor while focusing on the...

Reducing poverty and improving the living standards of the poor and vulnerable populations in Sri Lanka have been one of the country's key goals. The government has designed poverty-targeting programs with relevant government agencies working to support low-income families. The programs include...

Why is in-kind aid a prominent feature of welfare systems? We present a lab-in-the-field experiment involving members of the general U.S. population and SNAP recipients. After documenting a widespread desire to limit recipients’ choices, we quantify the relative importance of (i) welfarist...

This paper examines how access to informal insurance shapes family responses to reductions in social welfare benefits, and how these adjustments affect children's development. In 2003, Israel reformed its child allowance program, significantly reducing unconditional cash benefits for large...

Poor households are heterogeneous in the circumstances preventing an improvement in their welfare. It is important to understand the nuances within different types of poor households so that critical pathways out of poverty that remedy the variegated sets of constraints they face can be...

This paper examines the current state of play and trends in social assistance in terms of spending, coverage, incidence, benefit size, and poverty reduction impacts using administrative data and household survey data from about 70 countries worldwide. This paper is the fourth edition of the...

Mind the gap evaluates the progress in strengthening social protection and labor systems in emerging and developing economies (EDEs) in three areas: coverage, adequacy of benefits for the poor, and level of financing. The paper explores policy options to reduce the coverage and income gap for...