Abdelkrim Araar – författare

The publication of this book is in large part due to the role of Canada's Inter­ national Development Research Center (IDRC) in encouraging policy-relevant research in the fields o f poverty and equity. The book has in particular benefit­ ted much from IDRC's support of two significant ventures, the Micro Impacts of Macro Economic and Adjustment Programs (MIMAP) and the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) international research network. We are most grateful to the IDRC for their continued and inspiring dedication, professionalism and vision in the field of development research. The Secretariat d'appui instituti- nel a la recherche ^conomique en Afrique (SISERA), the World Bank Institute and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) have also partially supported to the production of this book. The fundamental research was fur­ ther financed by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and from the Ponds Quebecois de Recherche sur la Societe et la Culture (FQRSC) of the Province of Quebec. This book is mostiy targeted to senior undergraduate and graduate students in economics as well as to researchers and analytical policy makers. More gen­ erally, it is intended for social scientists and statisticians. Some of its content can also be instructive to less specialized readers, such as those in the general public wishing to introduce themselves to the challenges posed and the insights generated by distributive analysis. The book covers a relatively wide range of material.

The publication of this book is in large part due to the role of Canada''s Inter­ national Development Research Center (IDRC) in encouraging policy-relevant research in the fields o f poverty and equity. The book has in particular benefit­ ted much from IDRC''s support of two significant ventures, the Micro Impacts of Macro Economic and Adjustment Programs (MIMAP) and the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) international research network. We are most grateful to the IDRC for their continued and inspiring dedication, professionalism and vision in the field of development research. The Secretariat d''appui instituti- nel a la recherche ^conomique en Afrique (SISERA), the World Bank Institute and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) have also partially supported to the production of this book. The fundamental research was fur­ ther financed by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and from the Ponds Quebecois de Recherche sur la Societe et la Culture (FQRSC) of the Province of Quebec. This book is mostiy targeted to senior undergraduate and graduate students in economics as well as to researchers and analytical policy makers. More gen­ erally, it is intended for social scientists and statisticians. Some of its content can also be instructive to less specialized readers, such as those in the general public wishing to introduce themselves to the challenges posed and the insights generated by distributive analysis. The book covers a relatively wide range of material.

This book provides a general framework for the use of theoretical contributions in empirical works, addressing the question of what is the effect of a price change on household well-being. This simple question is one of the most relevant and controversial questions in microeconomic theory and one of the main sources of errors in empirical economics. In particular, this book aims to 1) Review the essential microeconomics literature since the first seminal papers by Hicks in the 1930s; 2) Organize and simplify this literature in a way that can be easily used by analysts with different backgrounds providing algebraic, geometric and computational illustrations; 3) identify and measure the essential differences across methods and test how these differences affect empirical results; 4) Provide guidelines for the use of alternative approaches under imperfect information on utility, demand systems, elasticities and more generally incomes and quantities; 5) Provide computational codes in Statafor the application of all methods. The focus of the book is on developing economies and the poor, and the assumptions made will relate primarily to these countries and group of people, presumably the main policy focus of international organizations and national governments.