The asset vulnerability framework: Reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies

Two decades after its original publication, The Analysis of Household Surveys is reissued with a new preface by its author, Sir Angus Deaton, recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. This classic work remains relevant to anyone with a serious interest in using household survey data to shed light on policy issues. This book reviews the analysis of household survey data, including the construction of household surveys, the econometric tools useful for such analysis, and a range of problems in development policy for which this survey analysis can be applied. The author's approach remains close to the data, using transparent econometric and graphical techniques to present data in a way that can clearly inform policy and academic debates. Chapter 1 describes the features of survey design that need to be understood in order to undertake appropriate analysis. Chapter 2 discusses the general econometric and statistical issues that arise when using survey data for estimation and inference. Chapter 3 covers the use of survey data to measure welfare, poverty, and distribution. Chapter 4 focuses on the use of household budget data to explore patterns of household demand. Chapter 5 discusses price reform, its effects on equity and efficiency, and how to measure them. Chapter 6 addresses the role of household consumption and saving in economic development. The book includes an appendix providing code and programs using STATA, which can serve as a template for the users' own analysis.

The analysis of household surveys

Some natural resources - oil and minerals in particular - exert a negative and nonlinear impact on growth via their deleterious impact on institutional quality. We show this result to be very robust. The Nigerian experience provides telling confirmation of this aspect of natural resources. Waste and poor institutional quality stemming from oil appear to have been primarily responsible for Nigeria's poor long-run economic performance. We propose a solution for addressing this resource curse which involves directly distributing the oil revenues to the public. Even with all the difficulties that will no doubt plague its actual implementation, our proposal will, at the least, be vastly superior to the status quo. At best, however, it could fundamentally improve the quality of public institutions and, as a result, durably raise long-run growth performance.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/nber_W9804.pdf?abstractid=420318

Addressing the Natural Resource Curse: An Illustration from Nigeria

Using original data on gifts and loans, this paper investigates how rural Filipino households deal with income and expenditure shocks. Results indicate that gifts and informal loans are partly motivated by consumption smoothing motives but do not serve to efficiently share risk. Certain shocks are better insured through gifts and loans than others. Mutual insurance does not take place at the village level; rather, households receive help primarily through networks of friends and relatives. Network quality matters. Risk is shared through flexible, zero interest informal loans rather than gifts. The evidence is consistent with models of quasi-credit where enforcement constraints limit gift giving.

/pdf/risk-sharing-networks-in-rural-philippines-2r04nal5xm.pdf

Risk Sharing Networks in Rural Philippines

Mass poverty results from long-term changes in social production and distribution mechanisms; famines result from violent short-term changes in the same mechanisms. Growth of mass poverty increases vulnerability to famine through raising the proportion of the population surviving on the margin ... Famines increases mass poverty by permanently altering the distribution of assets in favor of the [rich] (Ghose, A.K., 1989: 127).

The space of vulnerability: the causal structure of hunger and famine:

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/sternn/033NHS.pdf

The theory of reform and indian indirect taxes

Preface List of contributors PART I: General Issues: Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen: Public action for Social Security: Foundations and strategy Robin Burgess & Nicholas Stern: Social Security in developing countries: What, why, who and how? A. B. Atkinson & John Hills: Social Security in developed countries: Are there lessons for developing countries? Jean-Philippe Platteau: Traditional systems of Social Security and hunger insurance: Past achievements and modern challenges Bina Agarwal: Social Security and the family: Coping with seasonality and calamity in rural India PART II: Case Studies: Ehtisham Ahmad & Athar Hussain: Social Security in China: A historical perspective S. R. Osmani: Social Security in South Asia Carmelo Mesa-Lago: Social Security in Latin America and the Caribbean: A comparative assessment Joachim von Braun: Social Security in sub-Saharan Africa: Reflections on policy challenges Richard Morgan: Social Security in the SADCC States of Southern Africa: Social welfare programmes and the reduction of household vulnerability

/pdf/social-security-in-developing-countries-45srti32u7.pdf

Social security in developing countries

Preface 1. Issues and methods 2. The structure of taxation in Pakistan and its historical background 3. Theory 4. The taxation of agriculture: theoretical issues 5. Applying the theory 6. Effective taxes and shadow prices in Pakistan 7. The reform of indirect taxes in Pakistan 8. The taxation of land in Pakistan 9. International contrasts 10. Alternative sources of revenue Pakistan Conclusions References Index.

The theory and practice of tax reform in developing countries

Contents:Foreword Introduction: Fiscal Federalism - A Review of Developments in the Literature and PolicyEhtisham Ahmad and Giorgio BrosioPART I: APPROACHES TO FISCAL FEDERALISM1. The Political Economy of DecentralizationBen Lockwood2. Horizontal Competition Among GovernmentsPierre Salmon3. Modelling Vertical CompetitionAlbert Breton4. Spatial Interactions Among GovernmentsFrederico Revelli5. Asymmetric Federalism and the Political Economy of DecentralizationRoger D. Congleton6. Functional, Overlapping and Competing Jurisdictions (FOCJ): A Complement and Alternative to Today?s FederalismReiner Eichenberger and Bruno S. Frey7. Contract FederalismPaul Bernd SpahnPART II: DECENTRALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT8. Decentralization and DevelopmentPranab Bardhan9. Fiscal Federalism in Planned EconomiesGovinda Rao 10. Decentralization and Service DeliveryJunaid Ahmad, Shantayanan Devarajan, Stuti Khemani and Shekhar ShahPART III: IMPLEMENTING MULTILEVEL FISCAL SYSTEMS11. The Assignment of Functions to Decentralized Government: From Theory to Practice Bernard Dafflon12. Normative Versus Positive Theories of Revenue Assignments in Federations Maria Flavia Ambrosiano and Massimo Bordignon13. Tax Competition in a Federal SettingJohn D. Wilson14. Intergovernmental Redistributive Transfers: Efficiency and EquityRobin Boadway15. On the Implementation of Transfers to Subnational GovernmentsEhtisham Ahmad and Bob Searle16. Subnational Public Financial Management: Institutions and Macroeconomic Considerations Ehtisham Ahmad, Maria Albino-War and Raju SinghPART IV: EMERGING ISSUES17. The Assignment of Revenue from Natural ResourcesGiorgio Brosio18. Decentralization and the EnvironmentSilvana Dalmazzone19. Corruption and Decentralized Public GovernanceAnwar Shah20. Fiscal Federalism and National UnityRichard M. Bird and Robert D. Ebel21. Institutions of Federalism and Decentralized GovernmentBrian GalliganIndex

/pdf/handbook-of-fiscal-federalism-4vtbyj7i5l.pdf

Handbook of Fiscal Federalism

This 1991 study approaches the subject of tax reform from basic economic principles. The objectives are to develop guidelines for the design of tax policy; to show how the principles can structure systematic research into tax reform in terms of the consequences for households, producers and government; and finally, to combine the guidelines and applied research into a practical tax package for Pakistan. Professors Ahmad and Stern provide a coherent framework to show how principles can be formulated, applied research structured, and policies developed and appraised in a systematic manner. This book will be useful to graduate students, academic economists, and professional economists in international organisations and governments interested in public policy and development planning. The careful application of the ideas presented here should lead to a real improvement in the development of policy and to further empirical and theoretical research.

Ehtisham Ahmad

Papers

The theory of reform and indian indirect taxes

Social security in developing countries

The theory and practice of tax reform in developing countries

Handbook of Fiscal Federalism

The Theory and Practice of Tax Reform in Developing Countries