THE WELFARE STATE AND POVERTY IN FINLAND AND SWEDEN FROM THE MID-1960s TO THE MID-1980s

Using poverty lines representing the fixed basket of goods and services, the development over time of poverty in Finland and Sweden are compared. In both countries, poverty decreased rapidly between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, after which changes have been less dramatic. During the first part of the 1980s poverty continued to decrease in Finland, but increased in Sweden. Comparisons for age-groups showed large reductions in poverty rates among the aged in both countries. Poverty has shifted from the permanent old age poverty towards a more temporary poverty in young adulthood.
International comparisons show that in the early 1980s both Finland and Sweden had poverty rates below the average of the affluent Western nations. Furthermore, these comparisons suggest that cross-national variations in poverty rates are partly explained by the size of the welfare state. Also, time series analysis shows that income transfers have taken an increasing number of people out of poverty in both countries.     

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.     

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.     

Usury,Market Power and Poverty Traps: A Study of Rural Credit in 1930s’ China

This paper studies the cross-regional variation of interest rates in China in the 1930s. Based on county-level data from the Buck (1941) rural surveys, we examine factors that may have influenced rural interest rates in pre-1949 China. Since the quality of institutions that define property rights and facilitate contract enforcement is important for such transactions as land tenancy arrangements, we treat land tenancy rate (or percentage of owner-farmers) as a proxy for institutional quality. Contrary to the popular belief among historians and economists that usury or high interest rates caused persistent poverty, we find that while the monopoly-exploitation hypothesis has little explanatory power, a region’s institutional quality and income level are persistent and significant determinants of interest rates. Thus, poverty is a key driver of high rates of interest. Economic growth and the development of market institutions are crucial for lowering high interest rates and combating usury.     

A Picture of Male and Female Unemployment among Britain's Ethnic Minorities

Using a sample of around one million observations, formed by combining two micro datasets from the 1991 Census of Population, the paper explores male and female unemployment differences across Britain's ethnic minorities. The large sample size allows a detailed multivariate analysis of females for the first time. Unemployment differences are not simply the result of characteristic differences or discrimination by the white majority. The empirical work shows that there are equally wide discrepancies in female unemployment rates, compared with males, between the white majority and the non-white ethnic minorities. Of particular interest is the comparison between UK born and foreign born ethnic minorities. Unemployment rates among the former tend to be considerably higher, but this is accounted for by characteristic differences. Thus there is no evidence that the UK born are doing worse, as the raw data suggest, but they do not seem to be becoming better assimilated either.     

Re-evaluating differences in poverty among central city,suburban, and nonmetropolitan areas of the US

Poverty in the United States varies greatly by location. The difference in poverty intensity among locations, however, has only been evaluated by the official poverty measure – the headcount ratio – which has several drawbacks. The official poverty statistics also suffer from use of a single, arbitrary poverty line. This paper uses a recently-developed distribution-sensitive measure of poverty and 1990 census data to reconsider the difference among central city, suburban, and nonmetropolitan poverty levels, as well as differences among US regions. Instead of using a single, arguable poverty line, this paper lets the poverty line vary over an income range so that conclusions are more robust. We check for significance of differences across locations by applying some recently-developed methods of statistical inference.     

中国城镇贫困的变化趋势和模式:1988—2002

本文利用中国家庭收入项目(CHIP)调查数据,估计了1988—2002年中国城镇绝对贫困的变化趋势。根据CHIP调查数据所绘制的贫困发生曲线表明,不论把绝对贫困线确定在哪里,在该时期内中国城镇贫困都在显著减少。1988—1995年,收入分配不平等加剧,但此后基本保持稳定。分析收入和贫困决定因素的多元回归模型显示,教育、性别和中共党员等特征扩大了收入差异。来自政府反贫困措施的生活困难救助对减少城镇贫困影响很小。城镇贫困的缓解几乎完全归因于经济增长而非收入再分配。     

生命周期视角下收入主导型多维贫困的识别与成因分析

本文根据我国扶贫政策的目标构建了“收入主导型”的多维贫困识别指标，并对成人和儿童设置了差异化的多维贫困识别标准，以此为基础运用CFPS数据度量了我国多维贫困的程度，最后进一步探究多维贫困产生的原因。有74%的儿童存在至少一个维度上的贫困。儿童的多维贫困程度比成人严重，儿童健康和教育维度贫困率都在20%左右，亟须从生命周期视角下构建精准扶贫政策体系。对多维贫困影响因素的分析结果显示，人力资本因素、家庭负债情况等因素影响显著，折射出教育扶贫、金融扶贫等政策的必要性和紧迫性。     

IMPACT OF GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION ON POVERTY IN MADAGASCAR

Poverty in Madagascar has increased between 1962 and 1980 both in the rural and urban areas based on a comparison of some poverty measures, but decreased based on others. However, it remains predominantly a rural phenomenon. Distributional inequality is the major determinant of the variation in rural poverty, while the changes in urban poverty are due to the lack of economic growth. Thus, the urban bias introduced in government policies in the mid-1970s was not justifiable on strictly poverty-reduction grounds. A reduction of sectoral disparities would have led to a significant reduction of aggregate poverty.     

少数民族残疾人的社会经济状况

利用2006年第二次全国残疾人抽样调查数据对中国少数民族人群残疾现患率的流行特征、社会经济状况及其与汉族残疾人的差异进行比较分析。少数民族男性的残疾现患率(6.46%)高于女性(6.03%)。初中及以上教育程度的女性少数民族残疾人仅有10.04%。居住在农村的少数民族残疾人,大约有25%生活在国家规定的农村贫困标准以下,71%的农村少数民族残疾人没有参与任何形式的社会保险。农村、女性、老年残疾人是今后少数民族残疾人扶贫和社会保障覆盖重点干预对象;要优先提高女性残疾人的受教育水平。     

Poverty among minorities in the United States: explaining the racial poverty gap for Blacks and Latinos

The two largest minorities in the United States, African Americans and people of Hispanic origin, show official poverty rates at least twice as high as those of non-Hispanic Whites. These similarly high poverty rates between the two minorities are, however, the result of different combinations of factors related to the specific characteristics of these two groups. In this article, we analyse the role of demographic and labour-related variables in the current differential of poverty rates among racial and ethnic groups in the United States and its recent evolution. Our results show, first, that these differentials are largely explained by differing family characteristics of the ethnic groups. Furthermore, we show that while labour market activity of family members and a preponderance of single mothers play a more significant role in the higher poverty rates of Blacks, a larger number of dependent children is closely associated with higher poverty among Latinos, who also suffer from a larger educational attainment gap and higher immigration rates.     

Adding value through the mechanization of post-harvest cassava processing,and its impact on household poverty in north-eastern Zambia

This article investigates the impact of adopting a mechanized cassava processing system on household poverty levels in Zambia. An Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure was used to compare poverty levels among households using a mechanized cassava processing system against those households using a nonmechanized process. Based on the FGT poverty measure’s specifications, a significantly lower poverty status of 49% was found among households using the mechanized process when compared to the 58% found among households using the nonmechanized process. The significant factors contributing to these differences in poverty levels include whether households are using a mechanized process or not, the number of years’ schooling among household members, the number of years’ farming experience, household income and membership of associations. The study concludes that the mechanization of cassava processing, particularly if done on the right scale, can transform primary production activities, in turn leading to higher incomes and reduced poverty levels in rural villages. Thus, policies should be introduced aimed at encouraging the promotion of mechanized post-harvest cassava processing technologies among rural households, so as to enhance crop productivity and household income levels, as well as reduce poverty among rural households.     

生态扶贫与生态振兴有机衔接的实践基础及现实路径

当前我国正处于脱贫攻坚和乡村振兴两大战略实施的交汇期。生态环境保护是脱贫攻坚的重要手段,也是乡村振兴的长远举措,脱贫攻坚与乡村振兴具有内在的一致性,生态环境保护就是两者相互衔接的关键点。在生态扶贫过程中,通过设立公益性环境管护岗位、推进农村人居环境整治、大力发展农村生态产业以及推进适度规模的种养循环,为生态振兴积累了经验并打下了基础。但是在乡村振兴战略实施过程中,生态扶贫依然存在资金短缺、生态增收能力受限、扶贫开发缺乏生态考量等问题。因此,要明确政府、农村企业、农民、非政府组织在促进生态扶贫和生态振兴的衔接中的各自责任,提升多主体共同参与的合力。     

Do inward looking trade policies affect poverty and income inequality? Evidence from Indonesia's recent wave of rising protectionism

Unlike previous studies which often focus on trade liberalisation, this paper examines the impact of protectionism in the form of import tariffs and mineral export taxes on rural and urban poverty and income inequality for the first time. Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model on Indonesia, mineral export taxes were found to adversely affect urban and rural poverty but income inequality hardly changed as the decline in income in the higher income group is not significantly different to the decline in low income groups. However, if smelters for mineral ore are developed, then there is not only a fall in poverty, more so for the rural than urban, but there is some decline in income inequality. On the other hand, although the current imposed import tariffs do not affect poverty or income inequality, any further increases from the current low average MFN applied rates, will see a rise in rural and urban poverty and income inequality. By and large, any small improvements in the trade balance brought upon by the mineral tax and import tariffs are more than outweighed by the substantial decline in real household consumption expenditure due to falls in employment and wages, thereby leading to a fall in GDP growth.     

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.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN URBAN CHINA AND IN CHINA AS A WHOLE IN 1995

The composition, inequality and determinants of wealth among households in urban China in 1995 are studied. In addition, we compare the wealth distribution in urban China with the wealth distribution in rural China and present the first estimates of inequality in the distribution of household wealth in China as a whole. The results show that housing wealth makes up a large part of net worth in urban China. Most urban Chinese households keep a bank account; debts are unusual. A household's net worth is strongly related to its income and location. Net worth is more unequally distributed among urban households than among rural households. However, compared to the situation in most industrialized countries, net worth in urban China and in China as a whole appear to be rather equally distributed.     

ASPECTS OF POVERTY IN GREECE

Poverty in Greece is measured and decomposed using the primary consumption expenditure data of two Greek Household Expenditure Surveys (1974, 1981/82). Poverty is found to be associated with particular characteristics of the household or the household head. These characteristics are residence in rural areas, large household size, low educational level and old age of the household head. Poverty is also very high among members of households headed by farmers and retired persons. Both absolute and relative poverty declined substantially between 1974 and 1982. Changes in the structure of the population had a positive effect on poverty alleviation.     

滇西北高山峡谷区脱贫与生态保护建设研究

滇西北地区以其丰富多姿的生物资源、人文资源和景观资源而久负盛名。但由于地处边远和环境恶劣造成区内贫困问题、生态环境在耕种农业发展的压力下日趋恶化、山地灾害频发,这都成为影响区域社会经济发展的主要障碍。本文在实地调查与统计资料的研究基础上,对区内贫困现状与产生因素进行综合评价,认为区内贫困人口表现为:经济收入缺乏型、粮食生产短缺型、能源困乏型、水资源缺乏型及环境型5种贫困特征,以此为基础,就如何通过调整产业结构、合理开发利用与管理资源等,为实现区域脱贫与建设良好的生态环境提出相关建议。     

CHINESE REGIONAL INEQUALITIES IN INCOME AND WELL-BEING

Dividing China into seven regions reveals rural income and consumption divergence for both 1980–2005 and 2000–05. But while real rural consumption growth averaged 7.7 percent over 1985–2005 in the eastern coastal region, it averaged 6.5 percent uniformly in the interior. In evaluating well-being, such rapid improvement in all regions arguably overshadows negative connotations of divergence. Twenty years of household survey data reveal dramatic increases in rural household savings, as rural consumption improved more slowly than income in some periods. This raises questions about the suitability of consumption as a basis for measuring well-being and its distribution. Increased savings appear to be transient, as some households save while others dissave to purchase durables and afford lumpy services like education and healthcare—supplies of which became more plentiful in the 1990s. The paper argues that more meaningful measures of regional disparities come from differences in regional poverty headcounts. It also suggests that higher regional inequality and accompanying interregional migration indicate that inequality plays an important positive role in inducing economic actors voluntarily to move to more productive locations and activities as a mechanism for ensuring sustainable improvements in individual well-being.     

收入增长和分配对我国农村减贫的影响-方法、特征与证据

改革开放30年来,在农村居民收入水平快速增长的大背景下,农村减贫进程却表现出明显的波动性和不一致性。基于此,本文在贫困分解的基础上,运用贫困弹性的动态特征,从理论和实证的角度探讨了收入增长和收入分配对贫困减少的影响,解释上述问题。文章发现:(1)人均收入水平越高,贫困越有可能和收入不平等联系在一起;(2)收入不平等越严重的地区,贫困对收入不平等的反应越迟钝;(3)1998年是我国农村反贫困性质发生改变的拐点。文章建议,今后农村反贫困政策的重点应从以促进收入增长的开发式扶贫向以改善收入分配为重点的社会保护式扶贫政策转变。