Essays on Human Development and Public Policy

Poverty alleviation and welfare improvement of the poor have been the primary goals of policy makers in the developing world. Governments, policymakers, and international development agencies have regularly allocated a wide range of resources in attempts to improve socio-economic indicators of well-being amongst the poor. Careful analysis backed by rigorous evaluation of these efforts is of utmost importance in order to ascertain whether these goals are being met. My work focuses on some of the development goals and the role of policy efforts in addressing these.