Evaluation of the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov)

Evaluation of the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov)

Julie DaVanzo
Sebastian Linnemayr
Peter Glick
Eric Apaydin
Copyright Date: 2014
Published by: RAND Corporation
Pages: 151
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt6wq8x5
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  • Book Info
    Evaluation of the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov)
    Book Description:

    The RAND Corporation evaluated the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov) and its progress in achieving its goals of building and advancing the field of economic demography, orienting the work toward policy-relevant research, increasing economic policymakers’ recognition of the value of lowering population growth rates and investing in family planning, and strengthening research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa.

    eISBN: 978-0-8330-8670-9
    Subjects: Population Studies, Economics, History, Sociology

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-ii)
  2. Preface
    (pp. iii-iv)
  3. Table of Contents
    (pp. v-viii)
  4. Figures
    (pp. ix-x)
  5. Tables
    (pp. xi-xii)
  6. Summary
    (pp. xiii-xxvi)
  7. Acknowledgments
    (pp. xxvii-xxviii)
  8. Abbreviations
    (pp. xxix-xxxii)
  9. SECTION I Introduction
    (pp. 1-2)

    Since 2005, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, with collaboration and co-funding from research councils in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Norway and from the World Bank, has invested in a portfolio of social science research on the relationship between population dynamics and micro- and macroeconomic outcomes. The portfolio is known as the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov), and its geographic focus is on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The core aim of the program is to build (or, in some cases, rebuild) and advance the field of economic demography, orienting the work toward research that would be relevant...

  10. SECTION II History and Overview of PopPov
    (pp. 3-18)

    Because there was no comprehensive repository of PopPov’s history, we begin our report with a background of the evolution of the PopPov initiative and summarize its main components: the research program, dissertation fellowships, conferences and workshops, and dissemination activities. The information in this section comes from a variety of sources—from foundation, co-funder, and PRB records; progress and final reports submitted by grantees; information on the PopPov website and in the PRB Mendeley database;¹ the recent report on the state of PopPov (SOPP) (Lee and Belohlav, 2013); and communications we have had with people currently or formerly with partner organizations....

  11. SECTION III Methodological Approaches for the Evaluation
    (pp. 19-24)

    We now describe how we have addressed each of the four evaluation questions posed in the RFP:

    EQ.1. To what extent did PopPov reengage or strengthen the field of economic demography?

    EQ.2. What contribution has PopPov research made to the evidence base regarding relationships between demographic change or behavior and economic outcomes?

    EQ.3. How and to what extent did the PopPov investments yield policy-relevant and influential research?

    EQ.4. How did the design of the PopPov program affect its ability to build the field, expand the evidence base, and inform policies and practices? How did the implementation of the PopPov program...

  12. SECTION IV Findings for the Evaluation Questions
    (pp. 25-82)

    We now discuss our findings for the four main evaluation questions listed at the beginning of Section III.

    To find appropriate measures to evaluate the extent to which PopPov has improved relevant outcomes, we must defineeconomic demographyandfield. Althougheconomic demographyis typically defined as economic research on demographic topics broadly defined (to include not only fertility but also health and mortality, migration, household formation, and aging) for any geographic setting,¹ here we use a narrower definition of economic research or research on the economic aspects of the four PopPov research questions listed in Section II.A as applied...

  13. SECTION V Suggestions Regarding the Future of PopPov and Recommendations Based on the Evaluation
    (pp. 83-100)

    The starting premise that led to the development of the PopPov initiative was that evidence that population dynamics could affect economic outcomes might increase the interest of ministers of finance in funding population policies and that they might be most convinced by rigorous research done by respected economists. However, it was felt that there were key knowledge gaps in the evidence base about the effects of demographic change on economic outcomes at both the micro and macro levels, particularly for SSA, and that it was desirable to increase support for research and researchers that could answer the questions of potential...

  14. APPENDIX A Key Informants Interviewed by RAND Project Staff
    (pp. 101-104)
  15. APPENDIX B Information About Respondents to Our Online Survey
    (pp. 105-108)
  16. APPENDIX C Journals in Which PopPov Research Has Been Published
    (pp. 109-110)
  17. APPENDIX D Definitions of Economic Demography in Descriptions of Courses on Economic Demography
    (pp. 111-112)
  18. References
    (pp. 113-118)