This paper presents counterfactual
decompositions based on both the Shapley method and a
generalization of the Oaxaca-Blinder approach to identify
proximate factors that might explain differences in the
distribution of economic welfare in Cameroon in 1996-2007.
In particular, the analysis uses re-centered influence
function regressions to link the growth incidence curve for
2001-2007 to household characteristics and account for

How should Tajikistan adapt to ongoing
and future climate change, in particular given the many
pressing development challenges it currently faces? The
paper argues that for developing countries like Tajikistan,
faster economic and social development is the best possible
defense against climate change. It presents some key
findings from a recent nationally representative household
survey to illustrate the strong public support for more

The paper assesses the costs and
household level benefits of migrating overseas from
Bangladesh. The authors survey households who have had
overseas migrants to assess their characteristics compared
to non-migrants. They also compute various types of
migration and remittance related transaction costs and
discuss the channels by which overseas migration is
financed, remittances sent and the constraints faced by the

What are the main determinants of
transport costs: network access or competition among
transport providers? The focus in the transport sector has
often been on improving the coverage of "hard"
infrastructure, whereas in reality the cost of transporting
goods is quite sensitive to the extent of competition among
transport providers and scale economies in the freight
transport industry, creating monopolistic behavior and

Uganda needs to focus on improving the
effectiveness of its roads investment strategy for rural
Uganda and improving the manner in it procures and
implements roads contracts at the national level. In recent
years the Government of Uganda has shifted the priorities in
its national development strategy as there was accumulating
evidence that infrastructure deficiencies had become a
binding constraint to economic growth and poverty reduction.

This mid-term review has been undertaken
to assess progress in the implementation of the Eleventh
Five-Year Plan (11th 5YP) during its first two years and a
half, draw preliminary lessons, and make recommendations for
policy adjustments. The review examines the following
strategic objectives: ensuring the stable operation of the
macro economy and improving living standards; optimizing and
upgrading of industrial structure; increasing energy

The issue of regional differences in
development has moved to the center of the development
debate in Sri Lanka, partly after the release of regional
poverty data. For the past many years, there have been
significant and increasing differences between the Western
province and the rest of the country in terms of per capita
income levels, growth rates of per capita income, poverty
rates, and the structure of provincial economies. The

Ethiopia's rural non-farm sector is
significant and participation is increasing. The sector is
particularly important for women and poorer households.
Non-farm enterprises provide income-earning opportunities to
those lacking alternative options and supplementary income
for farming households. This report is organized into seven
chapters. The first chapter lays the analytical groundwork
for assessing the rural investment climate in Ethiopia and

The province of Papua of the Republic of
Indonesia was provided special autonomy under law 21-2001 in
recognition of the fact that 'the management and use of
the natural wealth of Tanah Papua has not yet been optimally
utilized to enhance the living standard of the natives,
causing a deep gap between the Papua province and the other
regions, and violations of the basic rights of the Papuan
people.' The goal of special autonomy was to help Papua

Measuring the poverty and distributional
impact of the global crisis for developing countries is not
easy, given the multiple channels of impact and the limited
availability of real-time data. Commonly-used approaches are
of limited use in addressing questions like who are being
affected by the crisis and by how much, and who are
vulnerable to falling into poverty if the crisis deepens?
This paper develops a simple micro-simulation method,

Standard approaches to decomposing how
much group differences contribute to inequality rarely show
significant between-group inequality, and are of limited use
in comparing populations with different numbers of groups.
This study applies an adaptation to the standard approach
that remedies these problems to longitudinal household data
from two Indian villages -- Palanpur in the north, and Sugao
in the west. The authors find that in Palanpur the largest

The authors analyze five rounds of
National Sample Survey data covering 1983, 1987/8, 1993/4,
1999/0, and 2004/5 to explore the relationship between rural
diversification and poverty. Poverty in rural India declined
at a modest rate during this period. The authors provide
region-level estimates that illustrate considerable
geographic heterogeneity in this progress. Poverty estimates
correlate well with region-level data on changes in