High inequality in Africa is something
of a paradox: Africa should be a low-inequality continent
according to the Kuznets hypothesis (because African
countries are poor and agriculture-based), and also because
land (the main asset) is widely shared. The author's
hypothesis is that African inequality is politically
determined. Yet in the empirical analysis, despite the
introduction of several political variables, there is still

The authors analyze how property rights
affect the allocation of firms' available resources
among different types of assets. In particular, they
investigate empirically for a large number of countries
whether firms in environments with more secure property
rights allocate available resources more toward intangible
assets and consequentially grow faster. The authors find
that improved asset allocation due to better property rights

With the recent resurgence of interest
in equity, inequality, and growth, the possibility of a
negative relationship between inequality and economic
growth, has received renewed interest in the literature.
Faced with the prospect that high levels of inequality may
persist, and give rise to poverty traps, policymakers are
paying more attention to the distributional implications of
macroeconomic policies. Because high levels of inequality

Production in 2004 was actually running
higher than consumption prior to 1995 and this has caused the existence of a world surplus of
baled cotton in the form of stocks in warehouse. It is the existence of these “ending stocks” that
has a large effect on the international price of cotton. Consumption began to
outpace production in 2001 to 2003 period and this, mixed with crop disasters in various regions,
caused the international price to rise. The reaction from many countries was to increase

The Government of Tanzania has, in
recent years, focused on revitalizing its mining sector in
order to attract foreign investment, with the goal of
raising its contribution to Tanzania's Gross Domestic
Product. With the support from the World Bank through the
Mineral Sector Development Project (MSDP), the legal and
fiscal regimes were revised and an environmental framework
was put in place. As the growth of the small scale mining

This is the sixth issue of the
"Thailand Social Monitor." It is written for Thai
policymakers, to provide them with the best evidence
currently available on poverty and public policy, and to
strengthen the foundation for anti-poverty strategies in
Thailand. This report approaches Poverty in Thailand from
four perspectives: 1) the changing profile of the poor, who
they are, where they live, their defining characteristics,

Since its recovery of macroeconomic
stability in 1991, the Dominican Republic has experienced a
period of notable economic growth. Poverty has declined in
the 1990s. Nevertheless, a segment of the population-mainly
in rural areas-does not seem to have benefited from this
growth. Poverty in this country in 1998 is less than that of
other countries if one adjusts for the level of economic
development. The principal poverty characteristics are the

Albania provides a small amount of
social assistance to nearly 20 percent of its population
through a system that allows some community discretion in
determining distribution. This study investigates how well
this social assistance program is targeted to the poor.
Relative to other safety net programs in low-income
countries, social assistance in Albania is fairly well
targeted. Nevertheless, the system is hampered by the

The rural economy of developing
countries has long been regarded as synonymous with
agriculture but in recent years this view has begun to
change. Such diverse activities as government, commerce, and
services are now seen as providing most income in rural
households. Applying decomposition analysis to two new
nationally representative sets of household data from Egypt
and Jordan, the author examines how different sources of

Geographic targeting is perhaps the most
popular mechanism used to direct social programs to the poor
in Latin America. The author empirically compares geographic
targeting indicators available in Peru. He combines
household-level information from the 1994 and 1997 Peru
Living Standards Measurement Surveys and district-level
information from the 1993 Peru Population and Housing
Census. He then conducts a series of simulations that

The first central message of this report
is that Brazil has over the last years achieved great
progress in its social policies and indicators. The second
central message is that poverty remains unacceptably high
for a country with Brazil's average income levels. The
worst remaining income poverty is mostly concentrated in the
Northeast region, and in the smaller urban and rural areas.
The third central message is that, with decisive action,

The first central message of this report
is that Brazil has over the last years achieved great
progress in its social policies and indicators. The second
central message is that poverty remains unacceptably high
for a country with Brazil's average income levels. The
worst remaining income poverty is mostly concentrated in the
Northeast region, and in the smaller urban and rural areas.
The third central message is that, with decisive action,