Economics & Development

Studies across countries find that single-mother households are socioeconomically disadvantaged. However, the heterogeneity of these households is regularly overlooked in the literature, with lone-mother households (with only one female adult) frequently undifferentiated from households in which a single mother lives with other adults. Using the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean, this paper examines lone-mother households across 15 countries, focusing on the prevalence of lone motherhood, socioeconomic characteristics and outcomes, and the role of social assistance in improving the economic well-being of these households. Among households with children, the share of lone-mother households is steadily increasing. The same holds for the share of children growing up in lone-mother households. Lone mothers have higher labor force participation and are more likely to receive private and public transfers than women who raise children with other adults. Yet, at 45.5 percent, lone-mother households have comparatively high poverty rates in a region where the overall poverty rate is 26.8 percent. The findings have implications for social policy and future research.

Understanding and accurately measuring societal progress is crucial for guiding policy and development efforts. This paper introduces a new method to measure societal progress that is comparable across different stages of development, time periods, and indicators. The paper utilizes this method to analyze six key indicators of development with cross-country data from 1950 and finds that the world is developing at its slowest pace in 75 years. This slowdown has already caused large development losses and will cause global poverty to increase if it continues. The paper identifies 54 countries that are more than 100 years away from reaching standards associated with graduating to developed country status if they continue at their current pace. The framework can be used to set development targets at various levels of ambition for every country and globally. The method involves specific data requirements, which means it is not suitable in all contexts.