Income inequality among minority farmers in China: Does social capital have a role?

We used recently available household panel data collected by China's National Bureau of Statistics to examine the effects of natural, human, material, and social capital on income inequality among minority farmers in China's Xinjiang Province between 2011 and 2012. Results obtained from panel quantile regression and correlated random effects’ models show that income inequality and the poverty of ethnic farmers have been decreasing to some extent. Results also indicated that human capital exacerbates income inequality among the minorities, whereas the effect of natural capital on income inequality is not evident. Social and material capital reduce income inequality among ethnic minorities. Results from the decomposition of the Gini coefficient indicate that material and social capital contribute to a substantial majority of the income inequality in the region.     

Racial/Ethnic disparities in high return investment ownership: a Heckman selection model

This study investigates racial/ethnic differences in high return investment ownership in the U.S. Households with low levels of financial assets might not be able to meaningfully make investment choices, so a Heckman two-stage selection model was used to separate the minimum asset level status from the allocation decision, specifically in whether households owned at least one high return investment. We found that households with White respondents were more likely than households with Black and Hispanic respondents to have adequate financial assets for investment. Conditional on having adequate financial assets, and controlling for household characteristics and financial literacy, White households were more likely to own high return investments than Black, Hispanic and Asian/other households. Policies to nudge households to invest some wealth in high return investment assets would benefit minority households.     

Poverty,inequality and ethnic minorities in Vietnam

The present study examines how and why ethnic minorities are poorer than ethnic majorities in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey data for 2002 and 2004. First, the analysis confirms that households belonging to the ethnic minority groups are not only poorer but also more vulnerable to various shocks than those in the ethnic majority groups, namely the Kinh and the Chinese. Second, household composition (e.g., dependency burden), education, land holding and location are important determinants of expenditure and poverty, whilst there is some diversity among different ethnic groups. Finally, the decomposition analyses reveal that the ethnic minorities are poorer not necessarily because they have more disadvantaged household characteristics (e.g., educational attainment or location), but, more importantly, because the returns to the characteristics are much lower for ethnic minorities than for the majorities. Government policies to reduce structural differences between ethnic majorities and minorities are imperative to address the disparities in returns to endowments between them.     

Socio-economic Determinants of Multidimensional Poverty in Rural West Bengal: A Household Level Analysis

The present study tries to estimate the incidence, depth and severity of multidimensional poverty (MDP) along with the contributions of dimensions to MDP among the rural households using multi-stage random sampling method in West Bengal. We decompose the inequality of deprivation scores between and within different socio-economic, religious and ethnic groups. The factors affecting the probability of falling in multidimensional poverty is also explored here using logistic regression, and the regression results suggest that public infrastructure plays an essential role towards explaining the variations of MDP. The present study is expected to be helpful to the development planners for better understanding of the root causes of MDP among the rural households in West Bengal.

     

Violence exposure and poverty: Evidence from the Burundi civil war

We investigate the relationship between exposure to the Burundi Civil War and household (food) poverty, using a three-wave household-level panel matched with data on local-level violence. We find that households living in localities exposed to the war have been subsequently more likely to be poor than non-exposed households. Within-household estimations, controlling for time-varying heterogeneity at the province level, confirm the positive impact of violence exposure on household poverty. We investigate some of the potential mechanisms at play in the violence – poverty nexus, and the role of violence exposure in household poverty dynamics over time. Our results notably suggest that the destruction of physical capital, as well as a shift of exposed households out of non-farm activities, shape poverty dynamics and lower their chances of durably remaining out of poverty.     

Channels of redistribution: Inequality and poverty in the Russian transition

Contrary to popular perception, Russia entered the transition with significant inequality. Using the large Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey dataset, we demonstrate that inequality has subsequently risen yet further and by end-1996 was roughly comparable to inequality in Mexico, Colombia or Malaysia. Driving this increase has been not only wealth transfers through privatization but also changes in government expenditure and a sharp growth in earnings dispersion. There has been a large, associated shift in the structure of income. The paper also looks at the incidence and depth of poverty over the period 1992-96. At the start of transition, roughly half the population of households fell below the poverty line. While this has subsequently declined, at end-1996 nearly 40 per cent of households were below the poverty line and a substantial stratum of households were locked in chronic poverty.     

Household poverty and inequality: the implication of migrants’ remittances in Nigeria

This article examines the nature of migrant remittances and the amount by which income poverty and inequality will be reduced given migrants’ remittances. We used the living standard survey (NLSS) data set produced by the government of Nigeria to help track poverty reduction progress. The unit of analysis was the household, upon which information on remittances was analysed. From the results, 94% of households received remittances through internal channels while less than 5% received them through international channels. Remittances alleviated poverty head count by 20% and helped to equalize household income inequality by 25%.     

The Redistributive Effects of a Minimum Wage Increase in New Zealand: A Microsimulation Analysis

This paper examines the potential effects on inequality and poverty of a minimum wage increase, based on a microsimulation model that captures the details of household composition and the income tax and welfare benefit system and allows for labour supply responses. Results suggest that, largely due to the composition of household incomes, a policy of increasing the minimum wage has a relatively small effect on the inequality of income per adult equivalent person, and a money metric utility measure, using several inequality indices. Hence, the minimum wage policy does not appear to be particularly well targeted, largely due to many low wage earners being secondary earners in higher income households, while many low income households have no wage earners at all. These results are reinforced when allowing for wage spillovers further up the wage distribution. Nevertheless, a minimum wage increase can have a more substantial effect on some poverty measures for sole parents in employment.     

A Method of Calculating Regional Consumer Price Differentials with Illustrative Evidence from India

In this paper we propose a method of estimating multilateral regional price index numbers from a given household level data set on item-wise unit values/prices. The method is closely related to the Country-Product Dummy variable model of Summers (1973). This method is likely to be particularly useful in studies of regional comparisons of poverty and inequality, optimal commodity taxes and tax reforms. To illustrate the method, we use it to calculate the regional consumer price index numbers for Eastern, Western and Southern India (taking Northern India as the reference region) separately for three categories of rural and urban households, viz., all households and those below and above the poverty line, using household level unit records of the NSS 50th round (1993–94) Consumer Expenditure Survey.     

Migration and urban poverty and inequality in China

Using data from recent surveys of migrants and local residents in ten cities in 2005, this paper examines how migration influences measurements of urban poverty and inequality in China, and also compares how other indicators of well-being differ for migrants and local residents. Contrary to previous studies that report that the income poverty rate of migrant households is 1.5 times that of local resident households, we find relatively small differences in the poverty rates of migrants and local residents. Although the hourly wages of migrants are much lower than those of local residents, migrant workers work longer hours and have lower dependency ratios and higher labor force participation rates. Including migrants increases somewhat measures of urban income inequality. Significant differences between migrants and local residents are found for non-income welfare indicators such as housing conditions and access to social insurance programs.     

Gender and Poverty Risk in Europe

This study advances research on the structural dimension in the predominantly individual-oriented field of poverty studies by evaluating to what extent cross-national differences in population and structural characteristics can explain the differences in poverty outcomes by gender. To facilitate an approach that integrates individual and structural context dimensions, the paper takes advantage of multilevel techniques to test gender differences in the risk of being poor, entering into poverty, and exiting from poverty among seventeen European countries. The analysis covers single-adult households, drawing on data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the years 2007–8. The study concludes that structural effects, such as welfare state policies, labor market characteristics, level of inequality, and the level of women's empowerment in the country, seem to be more relevant than individual effects in explaining differences in the gender poverty gap among countries.     

Household Strategies of Coping with Shocks in Post-crisis Russia

The paper looks at the subjective evaluations of a number of coping strategies that respondents undertook to mitigate the effect on their welfare of the Russian financial crisis. Given the dramatic drop in formal cash incomes, how are people able to adapt? What are the relative importance and effectiveness of coping strategies to resist hardship in reducing poverty for different groups of households? The results of the analysis indicate that the choices of survival strategies are determined by the level of human capital in the household. The higher the household human capital, the more likely the household is to choose active strategies. Households with low human capital, households headed by pensioners, and low‐educated households are more likely to be socially excluded. A specific set of policy interventions should be targeted on such households to avoid the entrenchment of poverty, and the trend toward marginalization and impoverishment of these groups should be expressly monitored.     

林业重点工程对样本农户收入不平等影响的分解与分析

本文采用15个案例县的1995—2006年3 096个样本数据分析林业重点工程对农民收入不平等及其影响程度的作用机理。研究结果显示:(1)在1995—2006年的12年间,样本农户的收入结构发生了重大变化,林业重点工程补贴收入提高了8.03个百分点;(2)林业重点工程补贴收入对样本农户收入的基尼系数的贡献呈现上升态势,从1995年的0.330 7%上升到2006年的3.794 1%;(3)林业工程收入格局与国家工程区域规划有密切关系,工程政策的影响更为显著。因此,适当调整林业重点工程政策可以更好地实现农村扶贫的目标。     

Consumer Debt and the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality in the US∗

This paper argues that interest on consumer debt must be taken into account when measuring poverty and inequality. These interest payments cannot be used to support household living standards. This makes middle- and low-income households worse off. Recent increases in consumer debt means that this deterioration in living standards is not captured by conventional government statistics. Using the Survey of Consumer Finances, we make estimates of poverty and inequality that take into account rising interest payments on consumer debt and discuss some of the implications of these estimates.     

STUDYING INEQUALITY IN INCOME DISTRIBUTION OF SINGLE-PERSON HOUSEHOLDS IN FOUR DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The increasing frequency of single-person households has become a major economic phenomenon, and is likely to become an important political force. This paper focuses on differences related to inequality of income distribution among single-person households in Europe's four largest economies, i.e. France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. Income distribution was modeled in terms of individual characteristics using a parametric model with heterogeneous model parameters. Poverty differences were also broken down using the results of Biewen and Jenkins (2005 ) in order to understand the relationship between poverty and individual characteristics among countries.     

Ethnic patterns of returns to education in Bulgaria

It is widely accepted that disparities in education contribute to the poor labour market outcomes experienced by ethnic minority groups and consequently to their poverty. In this article, I analyse differential educational benefits in Bulgaria and compare returns to education for the Roma minority with the majority population and the Turkish minority. I show that both ethnic minority groups have lower education levels and employment rates than the majority population and that they also have lower returns to education. This result could be related to minorities' lower education quality as well as to discrimination in the labour market. Integration policies should thus aim to improve employability and labour market competence of vulnerable groups starting from school.     

LOCAL DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT CASH TRANSFERS IN CHILE

Despite rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, inequality in Chile has remained high and remarkably constant over the last 20 years, prompting academic and public interest in the subject. Due to data limitations, however, research on inequality in Chile has concentrated on the national and regional levels. The impact of cash subsidies to poor households on local inequality is thus not well understood. Using poverty‐mapping methods to asses this impact, we find heterogeneity in the effectiveness of regional and municipal governments in reducing inequality via poverty‐reduction transfers, suggesting that alternative targeting regimes may complement current practice in aiding the poor.     

URBAN POVERTY IN CHINA AND ITS CONTRIBUTING FACTORS, 1986–2000

Food price increases and the introduction of radical social welfare and enterprise reforms during the 1990s generated significant changes in the lives of urban households in China. During this period urban poverty increased considerably. This paper uses household level data from 1986 to 2000 to examine what determines whether households fall below the poverty line over this period and investigates how the impact of these determinants has changed through time. We find that large households and households with more nonworking members are more likely to be poor, suggesting that perhaps the change from the old implicit price subsidies, based on household size, to an explicit income subsidy, based on employment, has worsened the position of large families. Further investigation into regional poverty variation indicates that over the 1986–93 period food price increases were also a major contributing factor. Between 1994 and 2000 the worsening of the economic situation of state sector employees contributed to the poverty increase.     

The impact of heterogeneity of discount factors and asset returns on inequality

We investigate the effect of differential access to financial markets, discount factor and wealth endowment on poverty and inequality. We construct a model of educational and savings choice with heterogeneous agents. Motivated by empirical evidence, in this economy the return on savings is a non-decreasing function of the amount saved. As expected, more patient households tend to become wealthier and more educated. The heterogeneity on portfolio returns is shown to be key to our main result: the model closely fits the data on income and wealth inequalities, being able to explain the existing Brazil’s inequality patterns. The model was also calibrated to the US, with similar fit. We then evaluate two types of public policies based on cash transfer schemes (CTSs), that aim to reduce poverty and inequality. We find that the CTS version in which receiving the benefit is conditional on educating the household’s youngster outperforms its unconditional version in almost all dimensions analysed.     

The price of education and inequality

Constructing a simple model that includes the price of education, this paper shows that the educational expenditure of rich households could prevent poor households from escaping poverty. The paper offers an explanation for persistent inequality.