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We use longitudinal data from children growing up in four developing countries (Peru, India, Vietnam, Ethiopia) to study the relationship between height at the age of 7-8 and a set of psychosocial competencies measured at the age of 11-12 that are known to be correlated with earnings during adulthood: self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations. Results show that a one standard deviation increase in height-for-age tends to increase self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations by 10.4%, 6.4% and 5.1%, respectively. We argue that these findings are likely to be informing of an underlying relationship between undernutrition and the formation of non-cognitive skills., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2005.06.009 Byline: Joachim De Weerdt (a), Stefan Dercon (b) Keywords: Full insurance hypothesis; Risk-sharing; Networks; Health shocks Abstract: Most risk-sharing tests on developing country data are conducted at the level of the village; generally, the full risk-sharing hypothesis is rejected. This paper uses detailed data on all insurance networks within a village in Tanzania; networks are not clustered but largely overlapping. We test whether full risk-sharing occurs within these networks. While village level full-insurance cannot be rejected for food consumption, we find evidence consistent with at least partial insurance of non-food consumption via networks. Author Affiliation: (a) Economic Development Initiatives, Bukoba, Tanzania and K.U. Leuven, Belgium (b) University of Oxford, UK Article History: Received 1 November 2002; Accepted 1 June 2005

With serious impacts of climate change looming in a few decades, but current poverty still high in the developing world, we ask how to spend development aid earmarked for the poor. Poverty reduction tends to be strongly linked to economic growth, but growth impacts the environment and increases carbon-dioxide emissions. So can greener growth that is more climate-resilient and less environmentally damaging deliver large-scale poverty reduction? Can aid be used for effective poverty reduction now without affecting carbon emissions substantially? We argue that there are bound to be trade-offs between emissions reductions and a greener growth on the one hand, and growth that is most effective in poverty reduction. We argue that development aid, earmarked for the poorest countries, should only selectively pay attention to climate change, and remain focused on fighting current poverty reduction, including via economic growth, not least as future resilience of these countries and their population will depend on their ability to create wealth and build up human capital now. The only use for development aid within the poorest countries for explicit climate-related investment ought to be when the investments also contribute to poverty reduction now, including for increasing resilience to current impacts of environmental shocks, or when the investments done now have serious intertemporal ‘lock-in’ problems so that they have implications also for when climate change bites by 2050. In an annex, we offer a series of concrete principles to judge development spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developing world is experiencing substantial environmental change, and climate change is likely to accelerate these processes in the coming decades. Due to their initial poverty and their relatively high dependence on environmental capital for their livelihoods, the poor are likely to suffer most due to their low resources for mitigation and investment in adaptation. Economic growth is essential for any large-scale poverty reduction. Green growth, a growth process that is sensitive to environmental and climate change concerns, can be particularly helpful in this respect. We focus on the possible trade-offs between the greening of growth and poverty reduction, and we highlight the sectoral and spatial processes behind effective poverty reduction. High labor intensity, declining shares of agriculture in GDP and employment, migration, and urbanization are essential features of poverty-reducing growth. We contrast some common and stylized green-sensitive growth ideas related to agriculture, trade, technology, infrastructure, and urban development with the requirements of poverty-sensitive growth. We find that these ideas may cause a slowdown in the effectiveness of growth to reduce poverty. The main lesson is that trade-offs are bound to exist; they increase the social costs of green growth and should be explicitly addressed. If they are not addressed, green growth may not be good for the poor, and the poor should not be asked to pay the price for sustaining growth while greening the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the popularity of school meals, little evidence exists on their effect on health outcomes. This study uses newly available longitudinal data from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India to estimate the impact of the introduction of a national midday meal program on anthropometric z -scores of primary school students and investigates whether the program ameliorated the deterioration of health in young children caused by a severe drought. Correcting for self-selection into the program using a nonlinearity in how age affects the probability of enrollment, we find that the program acted as a safety net for children, providing large and significant health gains for children whose families suffered from drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the complementarities of poverty reduction, equity and growth. According to economic experts, concern with poverty and inequality is not misplaced. However, donors have overextended its role in different ways. They implicitly subscribe to a selective normative view of other societies. This view is unlikely to be consistent with those generated within the societies themselves through democratic processes. It is not even a view to which the electorates of the donor countries usually subscribe when choosing their own governments. The imposition of these priorities is at once too radical and too conservative.

Examines the different strategies use by poor households to cope with risks. Use of assets to smooth income and consumption; Use of informal risk-sharing arrangements to cope with the consequence of risk; Constraints on the effectiveness of the strategies; Implications of the presence of significant income risk in developing countries in measuring poverty.