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"Levine, Sebastian"
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Legends, icons & rebels : music that changed the world
Introduces readers to twenty-seven artists whose innovations changed the musical landscape for the generations to come.
Book
Exploring Differences in National and International Poverty Estimates: Is Uganda on Track to Halve Poverty by 2015?
This paper explores causes of differences in estimates of poverty incidence in Uganda since the early 1990s as measured by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank. While both sets of estimates from the two organisations show a declining trend in poverty incidence there are important differences in the levels of poverty, the speed of the decline and the direction of change in the early 2000s. Methodological differences linked to the determination of the poverty line and adjustments for household composition are found to play a role. Assessing the effect of other potential causes is complicated by limitations in the World Bank's meta-data.
Journal Article
Robust Estimates of Changes in Poverty and Inequality in Post-Independence Namibia
The authors estimate changes in the distribution of household consumption expenditure in Namibia since Independence in 1990 and the effects on poverty. To produce comparability between two household surveys, they use survey matching techniques and apply the framework of stochastic dominance to test the robustness of the results. The results reveal a significant decrease in the poverty headcount over the period and small but insignificant decreases in the country?s extremely high levels of inequality. Decomposition analysis shows that poverty reduction in Namibia is largely driven by growth in mean incomes rather than redistribution. Even so, there have been important changes in inequality, especially between different social groups, as educational attainment has replaced ethnicity as the main determinant of inequality between groups. (?)
Paper
Inequality in Post-Independence Namibia: the Unfinished Agenda
The economic, political and social transition of Namibia over the past two decades has been remarkable. From being mired in a protracted guerrilla war and after a century of colonial rule? until 1990 as a de facto annex to the South African Apartheid state?the country is now widely regarded as one of the more stable and well-governed democracies on the continent. Moreover, it is classified as ?upper middle income?, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) almost three times the average for sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, because of extreme levels of inequality, average GDP remains a particularly deceptive measure of welfare in Namibia. (?)
Paper
Measuring progress towards global poverty goals: Challenges and lessons from southern Africa
This paper draws on the work in Lesotho and Namibia of tracking progress towards cutting poverty in half by 2015, which is the key poverty target of the Millennium Development Goals. The paper serves at least two purposes. Firstly, it outlines the steps and methodological considerations involved in selecting appropriate national indicators and targets for measuring income poverty using household surveys and poverty lines based on observed consumption patterns. Secondly, it highlights some practical lessons and challenges for policy makers in southern Africa when they attempt to access and analyse poverty data under less than ideal circumstances.
Paper
A Robust Multi-Dimensional Poverty Profile for Uganda
In this paper we compute a multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) for Uganda following the approach proposed by Alkire and Forster (2007). Using household survey data we show how the incidence of multi-dimensional poverty has fallen in recent years and we use the decomposability features of the index to explain the drivers of reduction in multi-dimensional poverty. We also compare the results from Uganda with other countries for which the MPI has been computed and we note some caveats in such a comparison. The robustness of our estimates is tested in a stochastic dominance framework and using statistical inference. Notably, we extend the one-dimensional analysis of stochastic dominance to take into account household size in a second dimension, which is particularly important as some of the MPI indicators are sensitive to the number of household members. By exploiting a unique subsample of the integrated household survey programme in Uganda, which has not previously been analysed, we are also able to match the data-set used for the MPI with data used to compute the conventional estimates of monetary poverty. This enables a more robust assessment of the complementarities of the two types of poverty measures than has been previously possible.
Paper
Poverty and Social Impact Analysis:Universal Primary Education in Uganda: Equity in Opportunities and Human Capital Investment
This paper assesses the effectiveness and progressivity of Uganda's Universal Primary Education program since it was first introduced in 1997, by examining factors driving primary school attendance, grade delay and drop out trends for children between the ages of 6 and 12 over the past two decades. Our findings reveal that primary school attendance has been progressive over time and, in recent years, pro-poor, in the sense that the poorest people have been its major beneficiaries. However, both demand and supply-side factors affecting the provision and use of primary education still stand in the way of achieving optimal and equitable participation from UPE. Our analysis also suggests that policies targeting the poor as well as the poorer parts of the country could yield considerable additional benefits, in terms of greater progressiveness and propoorness of the UPE policy.
Paper
Sectoral and welfare effects of the global economic crisis on Uganda: a recursive dynamic CGE analysis
This paper analyses the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on Uganda notably on macro-economic aggregates, sectoral output and household welfare, and the potential role of fiscal policy and reform in mitigating the impacts. We find that second round effects from a reduction in financial inflows such as remittances, foreign direct investments and overseas development assistance, as well as reduction in international demand from cash crops such as cotton, tea and coffee, could lead to a reduction in economic growth by 0.6 percentage points on average annually over the period 2008- 2010 compared to a baseline reflecting pre-crisis conditions. A surge in regional exports and early counter-cyclical policies in particular are found to dampen the most adverse impacts of the crisis. The paper also shows that the impact of the government's expansionary 2009/2010 budget could return growth to pre-crisis levels and illustrates how a re-prioritization of government expenditure away from expenditure on administration to more productive sectors of the economy, combined with reforms to improve the efficiency of public spending, could lift long-term growth and reduce poverty, especially in rural areas, even more.
Paper
Fasting-mimicking diet causes hepatic and blood markers changes indicating reduced biological age and disease risk
In mice, periodic cycles of a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) protect normal cells while killing damaged cells including cancer and autoimmune cells, reduce inflammation, promote multi-system regeneration, and extend longevity. Here, we performed secondary and exploratory analysis of blood samples from a randomized clinical trial (NCT02158897) and show that 3 FMD cycles in adult study participants are associated with reduced insulin resistance and other pre-diabetes markers, lower hepatic fat (as determined by magnetic resonance imaging) and increased lymphoid to myeloid ratio: an indicator of immune system age. Based on a validated measure of biological age predictive of morbidity and mortality, 3 FMD cycles were associated with a decrease of 2.5 years in median biological age, independent of weight loss. Nearly identical findings resulted from a second clinical study (NCT04150159). Together these results provide initial support for beneficial effects of the FMD on multiple cardiometabolic risk factors and biomarkers of biological age.
Fasting mimicking diets (FMDs) can promote healthy aging in animal models but effects on human healthspan remain elusive. Here the authors provide support for beneficial effects of the FMD on cardiometabolic risk factors and biological age biomarkers.
Journal Article