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Reliable quantitative data are essential for understanding economic, social and governance development because it provides evidence, and evidence are crucial to set policies, monitor progress and evaluate results. Africa Development Indicators 2010 (ADI) provides the most detailed collection of data on Africa available. It puts together data from different sources, and is an essential tool for policy makers, researchers, and other people interested in Africa. The opening articles of the ADI 2010 print edition focus on behaviors that are difficult to observe and quantify, but whose impact on service delivery and regulation has adverse long-term effects on households. The term "quiet corruption" is introduced to indicate various types of malpractice of frontline providers (teachers, doctors, and other government officials at the front lines of service provision) that do not involve monetary exchange. The prevalence of quiet corruption and its long-term consequences might be even more harmful for developing countries, and for the poor in particular who are more exposed to adverse shocks to their income and are more reliant on government services to satisfy their most basic needs.

Economics. --- Governance -- Social. --- Economic History --- Business & Economics --- Africa --- Economic conditions. --- Health Monitoring and Evaluation --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacoeconomics --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis --- Poverty Reduction --- Public Sector Corruption and Anticorruption Measures

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This paper studies the effect of increased access to antiretroviral therapy on risky sexual behavior, using data collected in Mozambique in 2007 and 2008. The survey sampled both households of randomly selected HIV positive individuals and households from the general population. Controlling for unobserved individual characteristics, the findings support the hypothesis of disinhibition behaviors, whereby risky sexual behaviors increase in response to the perceived changes in risk associated with increased access to antiretroviral therapy. Furthermore, men and women respond differently to the perceived changes in risk. In particular, risky behaviors increase for men who believe, wrongly, that AIDS can be cured, while risky behaviors increase for women who believe, correctly, that antiretroviral therapy can treat AIDS but cannot cure it. The findings suggest that scaling up access to antiretroviral therapy without prevention programs may not be optimal if the objective is to contain the disease, since people would adjust their sexual behavior in response to the perceived changes in risk. Therefore, prevention programs need to include educational messages about antiretroviral therapy, and address the changing beliefs about HIV in the era of increasing antiretroviral therapy availability.

Abstinence --- Adolescent Health --- AIDS Treatment --- Disease Control & Prevention --- Gender --- Gender and Health --- Gender Difference --- Health Facility --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- HIV AIDS --- HIV Positive --- Individual Characteristics --- Population Policies --- Risky Sexual Behaviors --- Safe Sex --- Use of Condoms --- Voluntary Counseling

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Using a stochastic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations, this paper studies a policy rule for the retirement age aiming at offsetting the effects on the supply of labor following fertility changes. The authors find that the retirement age should increase more than proportionally to the direct fall in labor supply caused by a fall in fertility. The robustness of this result is checked against alternative model specifications and parameter values. The efficacy of the policy rule depends crucially on the link between the preference for leisure and the response of the intensive margin of labor supply to changes in the statutory retirement age. The model has subsequently been calibrated for Brazil by Jorgensen (2010), in the context of the Brazil Aging Study.

Aggregate Income --- Business cycle --- Contribution rate --- Downward pressure --- Early retirement --- Economic Theory & Research --- Exogenous shock --- Exogenous variable --- General equilibrium --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Human capital --- Labor economics --- Labor force --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Labor supply --- Labour --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Market equilibrium --- Payroll tax --- Pensions & Retirement Systems --- Population Policies --- Real wages --- Retirement --- Social Protections and Labor --- Wage rate --- Worker --- Workers

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How should Tajikistan adapt to ongoing and future climate change, in particular given the many pressing development challenges it currently faces? The paper argues that for developing countries like Tajikistan, faster economic and social development is the best possible defense against climate change. It presents some key findings from a recent nationally representative household survey to illustrate the strong public support for more climate change related spending on better management of water resources, disaster management, agriculture, and public health-four key sectors that the government's latest poverty reduction strategy identifies as being especially important from a climate change perspective. Finally, the paper argues that, as important as project-based adaptation measures may be, it is imperative that they be supported by an overall policy framework that provides a truly enabling environment to facilitate faster climate change adaptation.

Climate Change --- Climate Change Adaptation --- Climate Change Economics --- Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases --- Developing Countries --- Disaster Prevention --- Environment --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Household Surveys --- Income --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Management of Water --- Migration --- Population Policies --- Public Health --- Public Support --- Science and Technology Development --- Science of Climate Change --- Water Supply and Sanitation --- Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions

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Taking advantage of a historical quasi-experiment in Sri Lanka, this paper provides evidence on the effects of land market restrictions on wages and its spatial pattern. The empirical specification is derived from a general equilibrium model that predicts that the adverse effects of land market restrictions on wages will be less in remote locations. For identification, the study exploits the effects of historical malaria prevalence on the incidence of land restrictions through its effects on "crown land". During the 16th to early 20th centuries, areas severely affected by malaria were abandoned by households and the land was taken over by the government. These lands that were later distributed through resettlement programs are subject to sales, rental, and mortgage restrictions. The variations in the amount of crown land resulting from different intensity of historical malaria provide a source of exogenous variations in the incidence of land restrictions in a sub-district. The results show that land restrictions reduce wages substantially, and this effect is smaller in remote locations. A 1 percent increase in land restrictions reduces wages by about 6.6 percent at the median travel time from an urban center, and the effect becomes effectively zero after 6 hours of travel time.

Communities and Human Settlements --- Developing countries --- Economics --- Government policies --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Land markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Malaria --- National Urban Development Policies & Strategies --- Policy Research Working Paper --- Political Economy --- Population Policies --- Resettlement --- Rural Development --- Spatial distribution --- Transport --- Transport Economics Policy & Planning --- Travel time --- Urban Development --- Urban Housing and Land Settlements