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31. Energizing Rio+20: How the United States Can Promote Sustainable Energy for All at the 2012 Earth Summit

Author:
Nigel Purvis and Abigail Jones
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Worldwide, about 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity (one in five people), while unreliable electricity networks serve another 1 billion people. Roughly 2.7 billion—about 40 percent of the global population—lack access to clean cooking fuels. Instead, dirty, sometimes scarce and expensive fuels such as kerosene, candles, wood, animal waste, and crop residues power the lives of the energy poor, who pay disproportionately high costs and receive very poor quality in return. More than 95 percent of the energy poor are either in sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia, while 84 percent are in rural areas—the same regions that are the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Asia

32. The Quality of Official Development Assistance Assessment 2009: Is Aid Quality Improving?

Author:
Nancy Birdsall, Homi Kharas, and Rita Perakis
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
This report presents the results of the second edition of the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) assessment, with a focus on the changes that have occurred in donor performance since the first edition. These results were released in summary form in November, 2011, just before the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
South Korea

33. State Health Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures in Andhra Pradesh, India

Author:
Victoria Fan, Anup Karan, and Ajay Mahal
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In 2007, the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India began rolling out the Aarogyasri health insurance to reduce catastrophic health expenditures in households “below the poverty line.” We exploit variation in program roll-out over time and districts to evaluate the impacts of the scheme using difference-in-differences. Our results suggest that, within the first year of implementation, Phase I of Aarogyasri significantly reduced out-of-pocket inpatient expenditures and, to a lesser extent, outpatient expenditures. These results are robust to checks using quantile regression and matching methods. No clear effects on catastrophic health expenditures or medical impoverishment are seen. Aarogyasri is not benefiting scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households as much as the rest of the population.
Topic:
Health, Poverty, and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
India, Asia, and Andhra Pradesh

34. No Longer Poor: Ghana's New Income Status and Implications of Graduation from IDA

Author:
Todd Moss and Stephanie Majerowicz
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Ghana's largest and most important creditor for the past three decades has been the International Development Association (IDA), the soft loan window of the World Bank. That will soon come to an end. The combination of Ghana's rapid economic growth and the recent GDP rebasing exercise means that Ghana suddenly finds itself above the income limit for IDA eligibility. Formal graduation is imminent and comes with significant implications for access to concessional finance, debt, and relations with other creditors. This paper considers the specific questions related to Ghana's relationship with the World Bank, as well as the broader questions about the country's new middle-income status.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Poverty, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Africa

35. The Best Things in Life are (Nearly) Free: Technology, Knowledge and Global Health

Author:
Charles Kenny and Ursula Casabonne
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Casabonne and Kenny argue that two major factors underlie improved global health outcomes: first, the discovery of cheap technologies that can dramatically improve outcomes; second, the adoption of these technologies, thanks to the spread of knowledge. Other factors have played a role. Increased income not only allows for improved nutrition, but also helps to improve access to more complex preventative technologies. Institutional development is a second key to the spread of such complex technologies. Nonetheless, evidence of dramatic health improvements even in environments of weak institutions and stagnant incomes suggests that the role of these factors may be secondary.
Topic:
Development, Health, Poverty, and Foreign Aid

36. Declining Inequality in Latin America: Some Economics, Some Politics

Author:
Nancy Birdsall, Nora Lustig, and Darryl McLeod
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Latin America is known to have income inequality among the highest in the world. That inequality has been invoked to explain low growth, poor education, macroeconomic volatility, and political instability. But new research shows that inequality in the region is falling. In this paper we summarize recent findings on inequality, present and discuss an assessment of how the type of political regime matters and why, and investigate the relationship between changes in inequality and changes in the size of the middle class in the region. We conclude with some questions about whether and how changes in income distribution and in middle-class economic power will affect the politics of distribution in the future.
Topic:
Economics, Poverty, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
Latin America

37. Economics and Emigration: Trillion-dollar Bills on the Sidewalk?

Author:
Michael Clemens
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Large numbers of people born in poor countries would like to leave those countries, but barriers prevent their emigration. Those barriers, according to economists' best estimates to date, cost the world economy much more than all remaining barriers to the international movement of goods and capital combined. Yet economists spend much more time studying the movement of goods and capital, and when they study migration at all, they focus on the effects of immigration on nonmigrants in destination countries. I ask why this is the case and sketch a four-point research agenda on the effects of emigration. Barriers to emigration deserve a research priority that is commensurate with their likely colossal economic effects.
Topic:
Economics, Migration, Poverty, and Immigration

38. Incentive Proliferation? Making Sense of a New Wave of Development Programs

Author:
William Savedoff
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
A new wave of development programs that explicitly use incentives to achieve their aims is under way. They are part of a trend, accelerating in recent years, to disburse development assistance against specific and measurable outputs or outcomes. With a proliferation of new ideas under names such as “payments for performance,” “output-based aid,” and “results based financing,” it is easy to lose sight of basic underlying similarities in these approaches and to miss some significant differences. This paper proposes a way of classifying and distinguishing the range of incentive programs being debated today, emphasizing two particular dimensions: the agent whose behavior the incentive seeks to change and the specificity of the output or outcome measure. It begins by characterizing a basic incentive arrangement, discussing the range of available contracts and how they appear in development programs, presents a classification of existing incentive programs and illustrates the scheme with examples. The paper concludes by identifying four broad categories that address different problems and offers some cautionary notes.
Topic:
Development, International Political Economy, Poverty, and Foreign Aid

39. Scholars Who Became Practitioners

Author:
Nora Lustig
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Celebrated by academics, multilateral organizations, policymakers and the media, Mexico's Progresa/ Oportunidades conditional cash transfers program (CCT) is constantly used as a model of a successful antipoverty program. Here I argue that the transformation of well-trained scholars into influential practitioners played a fundamental role in promoting a new conceptual approach to poverty reduction, ensuring the technical soundness and effectiveness of the program, incorporating rigorous impact evaluation, and persuading politicians to implement and keep the program in place. The involvement of scholar-practitioners also helped disseminate the new CCT “technology” to many countries around the world quite rapidly.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Mexico

40. International Finance Corporation (ABCs of the IFIs Brief)

Author:
Jenny Ottenhoff
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is a multilateral financial institution that provides financial and technical assistance to the private sector in middle- and low- income countries. Unlike other international financial institutions, the IFC operates on a commercial basis and invests exclusively in for-profit projects that promote poverty reduction and development. Increasingly, the IFC is investing in the world's poorest countries and fragile states that have few private investors. IFC investments support a range of activities including agribusiness, manufacturing, health and education, microfinance programs, and infrastructure development.
Topic:
Development, Markets, Poverty, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment