Process evaluation is used to monitor and document program implementation and can aid in understanding the relationship between specific program elements and program outcomes. The scope and implementation of process evaluation has grown in complexity as its importance and utility have become more widely recognized. Several practical frameworks and models are available to practitioners to guide ...

Distributing subsidized health products through existing health infrastructure could substantially and cost-effectively improve health in sub-Saharan Africa. There is, however, widespread concern that poor governance – in particular, limited health worker accountability – seriously undermines the effectiveness of subsidy programs. We audit targeted bednet distribution programs to quantify the e...

Global inequities in access to pharmaceutical products exist between rich and poor countries because of market and government failures as well as huge income differences. Multiple policies are required to address this global drug gap for three categories of pharmaceutical products: essential drugs, new drugs, and yet-to-be-developed drugs. Policies should combine "push" approaches of subsidies ...

We explore the effectiveness of matching grants when lower levels of government can expropriate some of the funds for other uses. Using data on the Medicaid Disproportionate Share program, we identify states that were most able to expropriate funds. Payments to public hospitals in these states were systematically diverted and had no significant impact on patient mortality. Payments that were no...

In this paper, a variety of potentially explanatory indicators for child labor and school attendance in Zambia is scrutinized. By analyzing the results from a bivariate probit model, the arising doubt with regard to the income sensitivity of the child labor choice is confirmed. Among other factors, community effects influence the child labor and schooling choice. Based on the results, sensitiza...

In Senegal, as in many developing countries, the agricultural sector plays a key role economy. addition to supplying food, agriculture is most important source of employment, especially for women. Through Plan an Emerging Senegal (PES), Senegalese government implementing ambitious financing plan improve productivity and enhance employment opportunities Our study assesses impact two PES measures...

Habitat fragmentation is widely considered a primary threat to biodiversity. In this paper, we analyze incentive-based policies designed to reduce forest fragmentation in the coastal plain region of South Carolina. Our approach integrates an econometric model of land use with simulations that predict the spatial pattern of land-use change. We analyze how subsidies for afforestation affect distr...

We investigate whether private research investments are distorted away from long-term projects. Our theoretical model highlights two potential sources of this distortion: short-termism and the fixed patent term. Our empirical context is cancer research, where clinical trials--and hence, project durations--are shorter for late-stage cancer treatments relative to early-stage treatments or cancer ...

I consider the implications of recent research for R&D policy in developing countries. Typical new growth models, which assume free entry and no strategic behaviour by R&D producers, are less appropriate for policy guidance than strategic oligopoly models. But the latter have ambiguous implications for targeted R&D subsidies, and caution against the anti-competitive effects of research joint ve...