The challenges associated with poverty measurement with a cardinal variable have received due attention during the last four decades, but there is a dearth of literature studying how to meaningfully assess poverty with an ordinal variable.
... See More + This paper first proposes a class of simple, intuitive and policy-relevant poverty measures for ordinal variables. These measures are sensitive to depth of deprivations, unlike the headcount ratio. Moreover, under appropriate restrictions, the measures ensure that priority is given to the poorest among the poor while targeting, monitoring and evaluating poverty alleviation programs. To assess the robustness of poverty comparisons to alternative choices of parameters, various stochastic dominance tests are developed (some of which are themselves novel contributions to the stochastic dominance literature). The empirical illustration documenting changes in sanitation deprivation in Bangladesh showcases the measures' ability to identify instances in which overall sanitation deprivation improved while leaving the poorest behind.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS9120 JAN 23, 2020
Intra-household inequalities have long been a source of concern for policy design, but there is very little evidence. The current practice of ignoring inequality within households could lead to an underestimation of both overall inequality and poverty levels, as well as to the misclassification of some individuals as regards to their poverty status.
... See More + Using a novel survey for Senegal in which consumption data were collected at a disaggregated level, this paper quantifies these various effects. In total, two opposing effects, one on mean and one on inequality, compensate each other in terms of the overall poverty rate, but individual poverty statuses are affected. Intra-household consumption inequalities accounts for 14 percent of inequality in Senegal. The authors uncover the fact that household structure and organization are key correlates of intra-household inequality and individual risk of poverty.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS9121 JAN 23, 2020
This note outlines some of the major gains that have been achieved in Afghanistan since the US-led intervention in 2001. The analysis is informed by comparisons to development progress and outcomes in other low-income countries over the same period.
... See More + Afghanistan remains mired in conflict and faces immense development challenges. However, donor and government programs executed in the context of rapid economic growth and sound macroeconomic management have supported rapid improvements in provision of basic public services and infrastructure over the past two decades. While progress has been uneven and data to assess progress is sometimes limited or unreliable, increased access to services and infrastructure has driven huge development gains, often far outpacing progress achieved in other low-income countries. Against many indicators, Afghanistan is now performing similarly to other countries at its level of incomes, while receiving similar levels of civilian aid. Development gains remain fragile, however, and continued international support will be required to avoid reversal of recent progress. Section two outlines the extent of international assistance to Afghanistan since 2001. Section three reviews economic performance and overall macroeconomic management. Section four shows how access to services and infrastructure has improved. Section five shows how improved access to services has led to major improvements in development outcomes, including for women. The final section highlights continued weakness in governance and the need for ongoing international support.
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Afghanistan currently faces a sea of uncertainty. Outcomes of the September 2019 presidential elections are not yet known, and preliminary results have been challenged.
... See More + Insecurity continues, with government and insurgent operations imposing an increasing burden in terms of civilian casualties. Negotiations between the US and the Taliban have recently resumed, but prospects for and the contents of any eventual political settlement remain unclear. In the meantime, the duration and extent of continued international security support is being questioned. While international grants continue to finance 75 percent of public expenditure, current aid pledges expire at the end of 2020, with some major donors signaling intentions to significantly reduce support. This context of uncertainty has fundamental implications for the economy, with growth and investment constrained by weak confidence.
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This paper analyzes changes in agricultural productivity gender gaps in Côte d'Ivoire between 2008 and 2016 using decomposition methods. The analysis finds that the unconditional gender gap between male- and female-headed households has decreased by 14 percent over the past decade.
... See More + The conditional gender gap has decreased by 32 percent and becomes statistically insignificant once accounting for whether households farm export crops. This transition is driven by improvements across crop types, but it is particularly remarkable for export crop productivity, likely due to increased adoption of fertilizer and pesticide by female-headed households. Despite these substantial improvements, female-headed households in the bottom half of the distribution remain disadvantaged. Moreover, over the past decade, female-headed households did not transition into commercial agriculture and have witnessed greater reductions in land area compared with their male counterparts. The results show that helping these female-headed households access agricultural labor, strengthen their land rights, and adopt export crops are the three most promising policy options to reach gender parity in agriculture in Côte d'Ivoire.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS9113 JAN 21, 2020
