The effectiveness of family planning programs in less developed countries: the evidence from survey data

25 countries in the less developed world now have functioning family planning programs designed to promote the practice of birth control. Their effectiveness is difficult to assess. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) studies are one means of program evaluation. A great deal of information is available from these studies. All populations show more awareness, approval, and practice of birth control. The programs have been able to get large numbers of people to use their promoted methods and are reaching large numbers of women in high fertility groups. Surveys indicate that ideas of ideal family size and composition are resistant to change thus making birth control acceptance more difficult to achieve. Methodological weaknesses in KAP studies are lack of information on intensity of motivations and attitudes about birth control, inconsistency in responses, and failure of respondent to understand questions. They are still not a completely reliable measure of the direct effects of family planning programs and tend to exaggerate the program's demographic impact. Survey and evaluation efforts have underplayed the role of abortion. Family planning programs will continue to play an important role in reducing births, but socio-economic factors will have more effect.     

Does Participation in the Food Stamp Program Increase the Prevalence of Obesity and Health Care Spending?

We use panel data techniques and information on state-level Food Stamp Program characteristics to obtain unbiased estimates of the impact of Food Stamp Program participation on weight status and health care spending among nonelderly adults. Our results suggest that program participation by women leads to a 5.9% (p = 0.07) increase in their likelihood of overweight and obesity, which is smaller than previous estimates, and to higher medical expenditures. The direct effect of program participation on medical spending through higher discretionary income is significantly larger than the indirect effect through changes in weight status.     

Fund selection,style allocation,and active management abilities: Evidence from funds of hedge funds’ holdings

This study examines whether funds of hedge funds (FOHFs) provide superior before-fee performance through managers’ fund selection, style allocation, and active management abilities. Using reported holdings of Securities and Exchange Commission–registered FOHFs, we find that FOHF managers have fund selection abilities, as hedge funds held by FOHFs outperform their style indices and over half of the individual hedge funds in the Lipper Trading Advisor Selection System (TASS) database. We also find that FOHF managers add value through active management of FOHFs’ holdings, while evidence on their style allocation abilities is mixed. Our findings suggest that FOHFs generate superior before-fee performance and that FOHF managers’ skillset is broader than previously documented. Thus, our study helps explain why FOHFs continue to survive and suggests that FOHF fee structure reform merits consideration.     

Land rights in postwar Liberia: The volatile part of the peace process

The end to the war in Liberia, along with quality leadership and a large UN presence has laid the foundation for a successful peace process. Now the delicate part of the process is underway—building viable, equitable, and durable social relations, institutions and legal constructs. A potentially volatile part of any postwar scenario is the inability of land rights institutions to perform in an effective, legitimate, equitable manner. Reform of land tenure via policies, laws, institutions, and capacity, needs to happen in a manner that is able to attend to both the land rights related causes of conflict, and the tangle of land problems brought on by the war itself. This article reports on the current situation in Liberia, and examines the primary set of land tenure problems in the country. The article concludes with a series of suggestions for dealing with the unique circumstances of postwar land tenure, and the Liberian case.