In this thesis I empirically examine the role of formal financial sector development in poverty alleviation. Three important contributions to the literature are made. In Chapter 2 I find that financial development aids the incomes of the poor in certain regions, whilst it may be detrimental to the poor's income in others. This contrasts with the evidence that economic growth is universally important for poverty reduction. Chapter 3 investigates the relationship between finance and health. My results show that a 10% increase in financial depth reduces infant and child mortality by approximately 1%. Additionally, I find that those who have bank accounts are less likely to cancel doctors' appointments, cease the use of regular medication, and cut back on staple food consumption. This is through accessing deposits or borrowing to pay for medical treatment. These findings are consistent with the theory that a well developed financial system may permit individuals to maintain their health levels when faced with an unexpected illness. These findings build on the literature by examining non-monetary aspects of poverty. Chapter 4 examines the relationship between financial access and poverty reduction. I find that a 10% increase in financial breadth may reduce absolute poverty by 0.2%. The results suggest that increasing ATM provision (and the most basic services of financial intermediation) is important for poverty reduction relative to offering more complicated financial instruments to the poor. These findings make a signifcant contribution to our understanding of how the financial system may be used as a tool to alleviate poverty.

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This thesis situates the discussion of poverty in Lesotho within the nexus of external labour markets, local economic forces and domestic social relations. Chapter I begins by overviewing the main socio-economic characteristics of Lesotho, where Lesotho's reliance on external labour markets and the characteristics of poverty will be introduced. Chapter 11 then discusses more detailed evidence on the relationship between poverty and migration. It is argued that migration cannot be adequately discussed without an analysis of the demand for migrant labour. Chapter III analyses the demand for labour in the South African agricultural sector, with particular reference to patterns of sectoral accumulation. Chapter IV proposes a survey that will provide useful insights into migration for farm employment. A group of Lesotho's poorest households, who work as farmlabour migrants, are identified and their sampling discussed. Using the results of this survey, Chapter V discusses the demand for migrant labour in the Free State Province of South Africa. It is argued that use of labour is influenced by the potential for workplace supervision and by the degree of worker-incentive. The factors that affect the supply of farm labour from Lesotho are then considered in Chapter VI. Implicit in this discussion is a reassessment of the division of resources and information-sharing within the household. The results of this chapter are incorporated in a more general discussion of poverty in Chapter VII, where it will be argued that many of the features of poverty and differentiation in Lesotho can neither be predicted nor analysed using the existing academic literature. Thus, it will be the work of Chapter VII to present an alternative analysis of poverty and differentiation in Lesotho. Finally, Chapter VI II will consider the conclusions of this discussion for poverty alleviation, including a brief evaluation of present government policy

The living conditions of the poor people of the world have been deteriorating despite the agreements of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Humanity is facing growing poverty; famines; pandemic illnesses; environmental disasters; violence; torture; corruption of governments; and lack of democracy. to enunciate some of all the problems, despite the agreements of the 1966 International Covenants of Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The separation of human rights preserved in the UDHR in two human rights covenants, and the vagueness of their wording are identified as difficulties faced by States parties of human rights covenants and treaties to comply with their obligations of realising human rights. New ideas and ways to help them reach these objectives are needed. This thesis contributes with Human Rights Implementability methodology to help States Parties bound by the ICESCR and other UN instruments to comply with their human rights obligations by following the identified economic, political and social factors and difficulties blocking the realisation of human rights assessed in the concluding observations of the HR Covenants Committees and UN Treaty Bodies. Relevant human rights and non-human rights documents -covenants, declarations, resolutions, guidelines, reports and recommendations- adopted by the United Nations, international organisations, international events and NGOs are critically read under the principles of: International Law, International Human Rights Law, Rights-Based Approach to Development, and Critical Theory. Their wording will be scrutinised in the light of the realisation of human rights. Particularly, humanity is suffering growing water scarcity and the human right to drinking water has hardly agreed by an UN General Assembly Resolution in 2010. The translation of recommendations into feasible actions will help Mexican Government further the particular realisation of the human right to drinking water.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the implications of aversion to risk for the economics of poverty.

Poverty remains one of the most pressing issues of our time. Understanding the impact of macroeconomic policy on poverty through growth and distribution of income is of considerable interest and this is what I examine in this dissertation. In Chapter 1, 'The Arithmetic of the Poverty-Growth- Inequality Triangle-Evidence from States of India', I use an arithmetic approach to examine how growth and income distribution matter simultaneously to poverty reduction by separating changes in poverty into a growth and distribution component. The results indicate that the poor benefit more from increasing aggregate growth than reducing inequality. In fact, bulk of the poverty reduction is concentrated in a period which witnessed the steepest increase in inequality since the effect of growth on poverty was large enough to overturn the effect of adverse distributional changes. Also, there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the poverty reduction performances of states, in particular the growth elasticity of poverty. I examine this heterogeneity in Chapter 2, 'The Empirics of the Poverty-Growth-Inequality Triangle: Does High Initial Poverty Matter?- Evidence from Rural India'. The more equal the initial income distribution and the higher the initial level of development, the greater is the growth elasticity of poverty. This empirical analysis also examines the impact of initial poverty on the pace of poverty reduction via its impact on economic growth and growth elasticity of poverty. Initial poverty has no adverse impact on growth; however it may lower the growth elasticity of poverty slightly. Furthermore, I find evidence of poverty convergence. In Chapter 3, 'Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Stabilility: Automatic Stabilizers Work, Always and Everywhere', I examine what can be done to protect the poor from macroeconomic shocks and volatility. Developed countries have in place in-built Counter cyclical automatic stabilizers to protect the poor from macroeconomic shocks and volatility and there is a vast literature on their effectiveness in reducing output volatility. Their effectiveness in developing countries has not been empirically validated. Using a sample of 49 countries, we estimate the impact of automatic stabilizers on output volatility and find that they strongly contribute to output stability regardless of the type of economy.

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