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This paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of three child-health outcomes related to the Millennium Development Goals: the infant mortality rate, the child mortality rate, and the prevalence of malnutrition. Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys, the paper goes beyond traditional crosscountry regressions by exploiting the variability in outcomes and explanatory variables observed within countries between asset quintiles. The findings suggest that apart from traditional variables (income, assets, education, and direct health interventions), better access to basic infrastructure services has an important role to play in improving child-health outcomes. Key words--Millennium Development Goals, infant mortality, malnutrition, infrastructure

While it may be feasible to target those receiving relief after a natural disaster, it is difficult to differentiate the amount of relief provided among beneficiaries. This is because much of the relief consists of food, clothing, and medicine, all goods for which the absorptive capacity of households is limited. Empirical tests using data from Honduras following Hurricane Mitch confirm this hypothesis. The probability of receiving relief was negatively correlated with wealth and positively correlated with assets losses (with a higher weight placed on losses than pre-disaster wealth) and the fact that households suffered damage to their dwelling. By contrast, controlling for whether households suffered damage to their dwelling, the amount of relief received was related neither to pre-Mitch wealth, nor to assets losses. JEL classification: H53, I38, Q18 Key words--Honduras, central America, disaster relief, poverty, wealth

This paper assesses the extent to which Hurricane Mitch affected the rural poor in Honduras and whether national and international aid efforts succeeded in providing relief. One of every two surveyed households incurred medical, housing, or other costs due to Mitch. One in three suffered from a loss in crops. One in five lost assets. One in 10 lost wages or business income. Relief was most often provided by churches and nongovernmental organizations. It consisted mainly of food, clothing, and medicine, and it amounted to less than one-tenth of the losses incurred by households. Key words -- Honduras, Central America, disaster relief, poverty, Mitch

This paper compares the performance of targeting indicators to identify the poor. If the ROC curve of one indicator lies above that of another, the first indicator dominates the second for all social welfare functions based on the two types of errors involved in targeting. The method is applied to Bangladesh. Fifteen indicators are used, including location, land ownership, education, occupation, demographics, age, family structure, and housing. The analysis is applied at the national, urban, and rural levels with two poverty lines. Education dominates land ownership in urban areas. The ranking is reversed in most cases in rural areas. Key words - Asia, Bangladesh, ROC curve, poverty, targeting, policy