MEASURING MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF VARIOUS APPROACHES

This paper makes a systematic comparison of four approaches to multidimensional poverty analysis based respectively on the theory of fuzzy sets, information theory, efficiency analysis and axiomatic derivations of poverty indices. The database was the 1995 Israeli Census that provided information on the ownership of various durable goods. There appears to be a fair degree of agreement between the various multidimensional poverty indices concerning the identification of the poor households. The four approaches have also shown that poverty decreases with the schooling level of the head of the household, first decreases and then increases with his/her age and with the size of the household. Poverty is higher when the head of the household is single and lower when he/she is married, lowest when the head of the household is Jewish and highest when he/she is Muslim. Poverty is also higher among households whose head immigrated in recent years, does not work or lives in Jerusalem. These observations were made on the basis of logit regressions. This impact on poverty of many of the variables is not very different from the one that is observed when poverty measurement is based only on the income or the total expenditures of the households.     

城乡贫困动态演化的实证研究——基于家庭微观面板数据的解读

改革开放以来,城乡绝对贫困问题得到了很大程度的缓解,而相对贫困问题则日益突出;同时,城乡贫困还表现出明显的动态演化特征。本文借助CHNS数据库,对城乡贫困动态演化进行实证研究。其结果显示:经济增长、人力资本以及家庭区位特征、家庭人口特征和劳动就业状况等变量是城乡贫困跨期变动的重要因素,但其影响大小和作用机制在城乡之间存在较大的差异。基于此,本文提出反贫困政策的制定和实施要注意政策受众的差异以及政策工具作用机制的不同。     

TEMPORARY AND PERSISTENT POVERTY AMONG ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THE MAJORITY IN RURAL CHINA

Poverty among ethnic minorities and the majority in rural China for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 is investigated, taking a dynamic view and using a large sample covering 22 provinces. Based on the National Bureau of Statistics' low income line, almost one-third of the ethnic minorities experienced poverty during the three years studied while the corresponding proportion among the ethnic majority was only about half as high. Still, by far most of the poor in rural China belong to the ethnic majority. The relatively high poverty rates for ethnic minorities in rural China are found to be due to higher rates of entry than for the majority, while differences in exit rates across ethnicities are few. To a large extent, ethnic poverty differences can be attributed to differences in location, together with temporary and persistent poverty in rural China having a very clear spatial character. Poverty is concentrated in the western region and villages with low average income. Determinants of persistent and temporary poverty in rural China differ due to location as well as household characteristics.     

Challenges in Measuring Poverty and Understanding its Dynamics: A South Asian Perspective

South Asia’s success at reducing poverty does not imply that the topic has become passé. Poverty rates are by now low, but this is because poverty lines are low as well. And the assessment of living standards and their dynamics are blurred by measurement and interpretation challenges. This paper relies mostly on South Asian examples to highlight four tensions: poorer versus richer households, rural versus urban locations, monetary versus non‐monetary dimensions of wellbeing, and household characteristics versus context. The discussion is conducted against the backdrop of the two analytical approaches with South Asian roots that have shaped the debate for decades. This review leads to three main recommendations: household survey data has to be exploited in a more thorough manner, data that is increasingly available from other sources needs to be incorporated more systematically in the analysis, and the multiple dimensions of wellbeing should be better integrated in a common framework.     

Lottery expenditures in Canada: a regional analysis of determinants and incidence

This article examines two issues; first, it evaluates the statistical significance of a number of socio-economic and demographic variables on the level of household lottery expenditures in the six regions of Canada. While some household characteristics vary in the extent to which they significantly affect the level of lottery expenditures across regions (wealth, age, occupation, mother tongue and urban location, for example), others are significant in every region. Regional consistency exists in the statistical significance of after tax household income, sex and education of the head of household – lottery expenditures increase as incomes increase; lottery expenditures are significantly lower for female heads of households than for their male counterparts; lottery expenditures decline as the education level of the head of household increases. Second, lottery expenditures are found to be regressive, although the degree of regressivity is less than for lotteries in the United States.     

POVERTY DYNAMICS DURING TRADE REFORM: EVIDENCE FROM RURAL VIETNAM

This paper implements and adapts the conceptual framework developed by Winters (2002) that identifies the transmission mechanisms between trade policy reform and household welfare outcomes. We make use of household panel data from Vietnam collected in two years, 1992–93 and 1997–98 that span the very earliest years of the reform period and its immediate after effects. Poverty dynamics are modeled using changes in consumption expenditure and poverty transition models. The trade effect is captured by a set of variables that are most likely to have an impact on rural poverty, namely prices of staples and employment in the export sector. We show that trade liberalization has a material and positive effect on rural household welfare and this trade effect is largely transmitted to the poor through the labor market channel.     

Non-monetary poverty in Togo: a multidimensional approach

The monetary approach is not sufficient to understand the multiple dimension of poverty. The purpose of this research is therefore to measure and analyze multidimensional poverty reduced to a single non-monetary dimension and according to the characteristics of household heads. Based on the non-monetary variables provided by the most recent country survey (QUIBB 2006), we use Multidimensional Correspondence Analysis techniques to construct a Composite Poverty Indicator. The results of the non-poverty index suggest that the poorest are large families and households in rural areas. The deprivation is also more serious in households whose heads are male, aged between 51 and 99 and less educated. The findings are the same for the monetary approach at the poverty line, leading to the conclusion that both types of poverty are quite strongly and positively correlated. Finally, we propose some recommendations for socioeconomic policies.     

Financial inclusion and poverty: a tale of forty-five thousand households

ABSTRACT

Using a new nationally representative survey data covering approximately 45,000 Indian households, we examine the effects of financial inclusion on poverty. We construct a multidimensional indicator of financial inclusion and examine the effects of financial inclusion on multiple measures of poverty including the household Poverty Probability Index (PPI), household deprivation scores, and poverty line. We find that financial inclusion has a strong poverty-reducing effect. This finding is consistent across the different measures of poverty used, and alternative ways of measures financial inclusion. These results underpin the importance of financial inclusion and the need for its promotion across countries.     

收入不平等与家庭借贷行为*——家庭为追求社会地位而借贷的动机真的存在吗

本文利用中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)2011年度的调查数据,考察了收入不平等对家庭借贷行为的影响,并验证了家庭是否存在为追求社会地位而借贷的动机。研究表明：（1）收入不平等并不是影响家庭是否借贷的主要因素,但是对家庭的负债规模存在十分显著的抑制作用;（2）收入不平等的扩大并不会促使中低收入家庭寻求借贷或提升家庭负债规模,我国家庭并不存在为了追求更高的社会地位而进行借贷的动机;（3）收入不平等的扩大有利于高收入家庭获得更多的正规金融借贷,中低收入家庭则会较多地依赖于非正规金融借贷;（4）户主的人口统计学特征、家庭经济特征以及家庭所处地区特征均是影响家庭借贷行为的重要因素,在正规金融和非正规金融市场上,影响家庭借贷行为的因素存在较明显的差异。     

DOES SAMPLE DESIGN MATTER FOR POVERTY RATE COMPARISONS?

Poverty comparisons—an increasingly important starting-point for welfare policy analysis-are almost always based on household surveys. Therefore they require that one be able to distinguish underlying differences in the populations being compared from sampling variation: standard errors must be calculated. This has typically been done assuming that the household surveys are simple random samples. However, household surveys are more complex than this. We show that taking into account sampling design has a major effect on estimated standard errors for well-known poverty measures. In our samples they increase by around one-half. We also show that making only a partial correction for sample design (taking into account clustering, but not stratification, whether explicit or implicit) can be as misleading as not taking any account of sampling design at all.     

Is increased agricultural protection beneficial for South Africa?

Using a top down computable general equilibrium microsimulation model of South Africa, this paper explores the impact on household well being of an increase in agricultural protection. This issue is of broader relevance to developing countries that may be contemplating the use of World Trade Organisation permissible trade barriers so as to achieve a domestic policy objective. The model predicts that gross domestic product would be unaffected while real private consumption falls. The real exchange rate appreciates while unemployment levels are unaffected. Food, other manufactures, trade and hotels are the clear losers. All other industries experience small positive gains or no impact on their output. The impact on households depends on their factor endowments and their consumption patterns. The impacts on poverty reduction are very small. Poverty indicators increase more in urban areas than in rural areas. Poverty increases slightly more among Asian households, followed by White and then Coloured households. African households experience small declines in poverty.     

教育在家庭创业中的作用——基于中国家庭金融调查的实证分析

本文在理论模型分析的基础上,利用2015年中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)考察了教育在家庭创业中的作用.研究发现:(1)教育本身确实对家庭创业存在正向激励作用,但是这种激励作用会随着个体教育程度的提高而呈现边际递减倾向;(2)教育程度越高,家庭创业越倾向于机会型创业;教育程度越低,家庭创业越倾向于生存型创业;(3)教育程度...     

RELATIVE POVERTY IN TWO EGALITARIAN SOCIETIES: A COMPARISON BETWEEN TAGANROG, RUSSIA DURING THE SOVIET ERA AND SWEDEN

Relative poverty in urban Russia at the end of the Soviet era (using microdata for the town of Taganrog) is compared to relative poverty in Sweden. The results indicate that the extent of relative poverty was rather similar in the two societies, but also that differences in the structure of poverty existed. In urban Russia characteristics of the household head leading to a high risk of poverty were advanced age, a limited education and being female. Swedish poverty was concentrated to households with a young head.     

Equity in Poverty Program Evaluations

Poverty‐reducing programs often use indicators other than household income to transfer resources to the poor which has important implications in terms of equity of the program. This paper offers a decomposition methodology to analyze the horizontal and vertical equity components of a redistribution policy for subgroups defined according to policy‐relevant characteristics. Our measures are derived by comparing the cost of inequality in terms of equally distributed equivalent poverty gaps in the pre‐transfer income and post‐transfer income distributions. An application to the poverty‐reducing program Oportunidades in Mexico in 2006 reveals that the use of indicator variables more strongly correlated with pre‐transfer incomes in rural households can improve the redistributive effect while it also points out the difficulties of the program in targeting different levels of support among the poor, both within and between groups.     

Testing exact aggregation in income and household characteristics: the effects of aggregation across goods

Exact aggregation in income and household characteristics are tested using Canadian cross-sectional microdata. Over 100 data sets of homogeneous households are used, making it possible to conduct a large number of independent hypothesis tests. Tests are also conducted to determine whether the homogeneous household groups can be grouped into more heterogeneous data sets. Six different kinds of demand systems are estimated to ensure the robustness of the results to separability/aggregation structure.Exact aggregation in income, family size, region of residence and housing tenure status are strongly rejected, but exact aggregation in age of head of household is not. Restrictions which would allow pooling of households of different sizes, regions and tenure status are also strongly rejected. The test results exhibit a little sensitivity to the expenditure aggregates used, but not to the extent that the results would be different.The results imply that aggregate demand functions which use time series data should include many statistics from the joint distribution of income and household characteristics. In addition, when using data at the micro-level, the amount of heterogeneity in households' behaviour is much greater than usually assumed. This calls for the use of much more homogeneous household groups in the estimation of demand models than are typically employed.     

To Work Oneself out of Poverty: The Dutch Experience 1989–96

This paper investigates the effect of finding work by one of the household members on the probability of escaping from poverty in the Netherlands. For households with non-active heads, finding work by the head of the household is the most important (investigated) event connected with exiting poverty, nearly a third of all poverty endings. However, finding a job by the head of the household does not guarantee one leaving poverty. In practice, the success rate yields 25 percent. A multivariate analysis shows that finding a job by the head of the household increases the chance of leaving poverty with 22 percent points. So, some exits from poverty are a result of other factors or are due to selectivity of the job-finders. This difference is much larger when partners or (adult) children find jobs.     

贵州农村不同类型家庭外出务工对家庭收入和生活的影响

分析贵州不同类型家庭外出务工对家庭的影响,发现夫妻共同外出务工家庭多以进工厂的方式外出打工,他们收入要高于户主单独外出务工家庭收入,而夫妻共同外出打工对留守老人与儿童的负面影响要大于户主单独外出务工的家庭。     

The poor outside the lamplight: on the prevalence of poverty among population groups not included in household surveys

Poverty rate calculations are often based on household surveys that exclude some of the groups most vulnerable to poverty such as the homeless. This paper documents the nature of the excluded groups and the quantitative importance of their omission for the Czech Republic. Our study combines European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data for 2011 with information from the 2011 Population Census. Our preferred estimate indicates an increase in the poverty rate by almost one percentage point. The paper contributes to accurately identifying the most vulnerable members of the society, which is essential for setting effective social policies.     

Demand for cigarettes in Turkey: an application of count data models

Household cigarette demand in Turkey is examined using the zero-inflated negative binomial model to account for a large portion of households not reporting cigarette smoking or purchase and estimated using the data from the national household survey implemented in 2003. Data were divided into two main groups: families with and without teenagers. Results identify relevant household head and household characteristics needed to develop effective public policy to prevent the decision to begin to smoke and to reduce cigarette purchase to lower the future growth of government healthcare expenditures. Specifically, healthcare expenditure share, income, and cigarette-price elasticities are relevant in lowering cigarette purchases. The calculated price elasticities for cigarette demand falls within the range determined by studies conducted for developed countries including the member states of the European Union. An estimate of the effect of an increase in the excise tax lowering demand is provided.