The great value of this volume is its presentation of the Human Opportunity Index, an indicator that notes both basic opportunities and how equitably those opportunities are distributed, in
this case, for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The information used in the Index was compiled from household surveys for 19 countries from 1995-2005, which measured the
welfare of children from the time of birth until 6th grade by noting their access to basic opportunites such as water and electricity and relating the presence or lack of these services to the
child’s future education and employment. The result is a comprehensive analysis of poverty and its impact that will be of wide interest and application in conceiving new policies to reduce
inequality of opportunity that contibutes strongly to Latin America’s economic disadvantage. The volume was produced by the Latin American Develoment Forum of the World Bank and is co-published
with Palgrave Macmillan. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
