Polish inequality statistics reconsidered: are the poor really that poor?

Why Are Poor Countries Poor ?

We attempt to explain why standard explanations of the poverty of nations are unsatisfactory. We first argue that human capital is low in poor countries because its production has increasing returns with respect to life expectancy. We then show that the reason why capital does not flow to poor countries (the Lucas paradox) can readily be explained once market prices rather than PPP prices are u...

Inequality is Bad for the Poor

* For their comments on this chapter, I am grateful to the editors of this volume and to participants at the authors' workshop held at Nuffield College Oxford, 2006. For expert assistance with the data used here my thanks go to Shaohua Chen and Prem Sangraula. In writing this chapter I have also benefited from discussions with many colleagues at the World Bank although the mandatory disclaimer ...

Statistics and drug utilization: are prescribing rates really that high?

Are the Poor Too Poor to Demand Health Insurance?

Community based microinsurance has aroused much interest and hope in meeting health care challenges that face the poor. In this paper we explore how institutional rigidities, such as credit constraint, affect the demand for health insurance and how insurance could potentially prevent poor households from falling into the poverty trap. In this setting, we argue that the appropriate public interv...

Does Microcredit Really Help Poor People ?

ver since microcredit first began to capture public attention 25 years ago, the usual story line has been that it is a tool of extraordinary power to lift poor people—especially women— out of poverty, by funding their microenterprises and raising their incomes. This picture has been buttressed by hundreds of inspiring stories of microentrepreneurs who used tiny loans to start or expand their bu...