Poverty and its many dimensions: The role of income as an indicator

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the choice of the dimension in which poverty is to be measured by reviewing some implications arising from the debate on the concept of welfare. By discussing Sen's capability approach, in particular, it is suggested that income or consumption are not necessarily the only indicators of interest in a poverty analysis. We then explore how comprehensive a picture of poverty can be gained by focusing on an income‐based measure, using Chilean data from 1992. We analyse the role of income both as having a direct impact on a set of indicators of well‐being and as proxying the relevant factors affecting them. In both cases the link is found to be weak. This suggests that poverty analysis is highly conditional on the indicators chosen and that the approach should be kept as broad as possible in order to capture more fully the multidimensional nature of such a complex phenomenon.     

The politics of preserving gender inequality: de-institutionalisation and re-privatisation

ABSTRACT

A backlash against gender equality is a core component of the contemporary tilt away from liberal democracy in some contexts. The backlash has been enabled by two developments that can de-institutionalise women’s rights. First, the privatisation associated with neoliberalism, and the austerity imposed by financial crises, have hollowed-out public provision of social services. The loss or erosion of public social protection systems reinforces the demand for unpaid care work, imposing a partial re-privatisation of women in their mothering roles. Second, security and immigration crises have inflamed nationalist right-wing populist movements that make the de-institutionalisationof liberal equality protections – including attacks on women’s rights provisions – a core signifier of anti-establishment credentials. The result is a stagnation at the global level since 2016 in the rate at which the gender gap is closing. Today, the active construction of inequality by gender – and its contestation – are more explicit features of national and global politics than ever before.     

Climate change: a rational choice politics view*

Reduction in carbon dioxide emissions constitutes a global public good; and hence there will be strong incentives for countries to free ride in the provision of CO₂ emission reductions. In the absence of more or less binding international agreements, we would expect carbon emissions to be seriously excessive, and climate change problems to be unsolvable. Against this obvious general point, we observe many countries acting unilaterally to introduce carbon emission policies. That is itself an explanatory puzzle, and a source of possible hope. Both aspects are matters of ‘how politics works’– i.e. ‘public choice’ problems are central. The object of this paper is to explain the phenomenon of unilateral policy action and to evaluate the grounds for ‘hope’. One aspect of the explanation lies in the construction of policy instruments that redistribute strategically in favour of relevant interests. Another is the ‘expressive’ nature of voting and the expressive value of environmental concerns. Both elements – elite interests and popular (expressive) opinion – are quasi‐constraints on politically viable policy. However, the nature of expressive concerns is such that significant reductions in real GDP are probably not sustainable in the long term – which suggests that much of the CO₂ reduction action will be limited to modest reductions of a largely token character. In that sense, the grounds for hope are, although not non‐existent, decidedly thin.     

Reform of tenancy systems and agrarian development: A Latin American case study

The present study employs recent World Bank data to shed light, in a global context, on the transformation of changes in income and inequality into poverty reduction for a large number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study begins by discussing SSA's progress on poverty. Next, it presents data on how various African countries have fared in terms of the incidence of poverty relative to other countries, with special emphasis on the period since the mid-1990s, when SSA generally experienced a growth resurgence. The paper then decomposes performance on poverty into changes in income and inequality for a sample of SSA countries that have the requisite data. The paper finds that recent progress on poverty has been considerable, in contrast to the earlier, 1980–early 1990s, period. Compared with the progress in a global sample of countries, however, progress has been mixed: nonetheless, although African countries lag behind the Brazil, India, China and Russia group of countries as a whole, many of them have outperformed India. Furthermore, while income growth is found to be the main engine for poverty reduction in SSA in general, the role of inequality is crucial in certain countries. Viewed in a global context, moreover, the low levels of income have inhibited the effectiveness of income and inequality improvements in reducing poverty in many African countries.     

Consumption inequality between farm and nonfarm households in Taiwan: a decomposition analysis of differences in distribution

Consumption has been recognized as a more reliable indicator of household well‐being than income. Although a considerable body of literature has examined income inequality between farm and nonfarm households, little is known about inequality in consumption. This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by investigating consumption disparity between farm and nonfarm households. Using a nationally representative household survey from Taiwan, we apply an unconditional quantile regression‐based decomposition method to decompose the differences in the distribution of household expenditure between these farm and nonfarm households. The results indicate that differences in the observed characteristics between these two types of households explain most of the consumption inequality. Moreover, the difference in the education level of the farm operator, household income, and the degree of urbanization are particularly important.     

The well-being of South African university students from low-income households

ABSTRACT

The role of higher education in development and social mobility is now widely acknowledged and globally recognised. In South Africa in particular, graduates have greatly increased employment prospects. This paper takes up the importance of addressing South African university students’ multi-dimensional well-being in the light of global higher education development agendas. Considering poverty and development in the space of higher education – specifically in the lives of youth from low-income households in South Africa – I draw on two waves of life history data from undergraduate students at five universities. Material-cultural conditions for a threshold of well-being emerged powerfully in every single student narrative, indicating a need for some rethinking of capability deprivation and poverty. This paper conceptualises three broad hardship categories specific to higher education, considering the multiplicity of factors and complexity of low-income in student experiences and achievements. Even though the theoretical framing draws on Sen’s capability approach and its attractive moral perspective, the paper also foregrounds students’ material well-being as significant in understanding how education can advance change, and not only reproduce social inequalities. The challenge remains, how do we reconcile resources and capabilities, and to link freedoms to financial analysis in evaluating the lives that students value?     

Going green in Thailand: Upgrading in global organic value chains

Under what conditions are some small-scale agricultural producers able to overcome challenges associated with shifting to organic production, whereas most are not? The answers are vital for the global effort to encourage more sustainable, pro-poor forms of agriculture—more organic farming, more sustainable production; more smallholders engaged in green production, more income and better livelihoods. Yet, answering this question is challenging in part because previous analyses of global production networks, such as those associated with organic agriculture, focus more on broad governance patterns than the specific factors and actors that help smallholders shift to organic production and link to far-flung markets. To fill in these gaps, we conducted fieldwork in Isan, Thailand, a major rice-producing area in which many groups of smallholders have attempted to shift into organic production. Doing so allows us to identify the critical challenges associated with upgrading into organic production and analyse how specific actors enabled some groups to overcome these challenges. Our findings provide a generalizable theoretical approach to understanding how to link small-scale farmers to global value chains in ways that can potentially enhance smallholders' livelihoods, spark rural development and encourage more sustainable practices in agriculture.     

The Impact of Internationalisation on the Swedish Food Industry

Abstract

The European integration process has changed the competitive landscape in many industries. The questions raised in this paper concern the reactions of national firms that are subjected to this process of internationalisation of competition.

This study highlights the vertical inter-dependence within a system of production and distribution. In internationalisation theory, most studies have focused on how firms become international or global players, where entrance into new markets is seen as a result of strategic decisions.

To illustrate this process, three industries in food production, that is the baking, the brewing and the confectionery industries, were chosen.

The results indicate that a supra-industrial strategic recipe exists, with a core content of specialised volume production. The discussion on company strategies focussed on the retail sector. The findings might be interpreted in the light of Galbraith's theory of countervailing power.     

(Landlord) Theory from the South: Empire and estates on a Punjabi Frontier

Theory has occasionally shaped agrarian transformations. Utilitarian theory, for instance, influenced British colonial land revenue policies, while modernization theory spurred, via the Green Revolution, the development of capitalist farming across the global South. Yet scholarship, when it has probed the mediation of theory in agrarian change, has largely centred on the intellectual activities of Western figures. In this paper, I examine an under-appreciated theorizing actor: landlords in the global South. I explore landlords' concept-work in the former “Punjab Frontier,” a region where Baloch chiefs collaborated with the British Raj to acquire localized magisterial powers, a paramilitary apparatus, and immense “landed estates” (jagirs). To overcome various crises, certain chiefs engaged with various imperial concepts—namely, property, race, progress, contract, and freedom—and re-arranged their estates. By showing how these elites creatively embraced these concepts to maintain a colonial-fortified hegemony, I also challenge those who overstate the emancipatory and decolonial possibilities of theory from the South.     

Vital capabilities: a development framework for sexual and gender minorities

ABSTRACT

Recent empirical research has revealed that sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) in all parts of the world face discrimination and disparities in important dimensions of development such as employment, income, education, violence and health. Yet, global human development policy largely overlooks SGMs. This paper seeks to advance the inclusion of SGMs in development discussions by formulating a capabilities approach applicable to SGMs. The paper first proposes a definitional scheme to identify precisely the population at stake, it then reviews psychological frameworks used to understand how sexuality and gender develop in ways that are positive and healthy, as well frameworks used to understand how law and culture restrict the choices and opportunities available to SGMs. Three themes emerge from each of these discussions, each of which underpin a capability vital to freedoms and positive development for SGMs: the capability to form one’s own identity, to engage in expression and expressive activity and to form and participate in relationships.     

Did the Key Priority Forestry Programs affect income inequality in rural China?

The Natural Forest Protection Program, the Sloping Land Conversion Program and the Desertification Combating Program around Beijing and Tianjing have been gradually launched since 1998 for ecosystem restoration. A large number of rural households have been enrolled in these programs, and the Government of China has designed different polices for these programs, such as subsidies and forbidden or restricted uses. How and how much these programs and policies have affected rural households’ inequality are urgent questions to be answered. The paper used a unique panel data of 1458 sample rural households from 15 counties in China to examine the direct and overall contributions of the Key Priority Forestry Programs (KPFPs) to rural households’ total income inequality. A fixed-effects model was used to estimate the impact of the KPFPs on land-based income and off-farm income. Our empirical results indicate that the direct contribution and overall (including direct and indirect) contribution have experienced a inverted U-shape. Specifically, the overall contributions of the KPFPs’ subsidies to income inequality were less pronounced than that of the direct effects. Furthermore, both the direct contributions and overall contributions to total income inequality changed over time during the study period and differed from one county to another.     

The human capital roots of the middle income trap: the case of China

China, like other middle income countries, is facing the challenges of the next stage of development as its leaders seek to guide the nation into becoming a high income country. In this article we explore one of the major challenges that China is facing in the transition from middle to high income: the management of inequality. In particular, we explore the possible roots of future inequality that is associated with a nation's underinvestment in the human capital of broad segments of its population. To meet this goal, we describe two challenges that China faces in the light of rising wage rates and highly unequal income distribution today. We first discuss the structural and institutional barriers that are discouraging many students (and their parents) from staying in school to achieve the levels of learning that we believe are necessary for preparing individuals for employment in the coming decades. We also identify severe nutritional and health problems. We believe that these nutrition and health problems, unless addressed, will continue to create human capital deficiencies in poor areas of rural China and locking in decades of hard‐to‐address inequality.     

中国农村居民收入分配中的机会不平等：2013—2018年

消除机会不平等,解决收入分配不公是构建体现公平与效率分配体系的重要举措。本文利用CHIP2013年和2018年数据对农村机会不平等问题进行研究,研究发现,第一,研究期内的农村居民收入机会不平等程度出现小幅下降,从2013年的24.4%下降到2018年的22.2%。第二,异质性分析显示,女性相对于男性,青壮年劳动力相对于老年劳动力,贫困县相对于非贫困县,机会不平等更为严重。第三,性别歧视对机会不平等贡献度最高,其次是年龄和区域(贫困县)因素,家庭环境影响最低。第四,农村机会不平等的间接渠道效应有所提高。女性主要面临与教育不公平相关的间接效应,男性主要受非竞争市场环境影响。第五,贫困县就业间接渠道效应跨期下降,据此推测国家"精准扶贫"政策有助于缓解由非竞争市场带来的就业机会不公问题。     

Government Policies and Sources of Latecomer Firms' Capability Building: A Learning Story from Brazil

Millennium goals aim to halve poverty in developing countries by 2015. As a distinction is not drawn between the persistently and transiently poor, there is a risk that strategies designed to accelerate growth to achieve the desired reduction in an overall index of poverty may be preferred to those that benefit the persistently poor. Besides, in the absence of a disaggregation of these goals into rural and urban components, rural poverty reduction may not get the priority it deserves. Finally, the feasibility of the millennium goals is not plausible. While the growth rates required for achieving these goals do not differ much from those recorded in recent years, their sustainability is not self-evident. Moreover, as income inequality has increased in recent years, the poverty reduction due to a given growth rate is lower. But these goals are nevertheless useful in drawing attention to pervasive deprivation in developing countries, and to the need for a determined and co-ordinated effort by the development community in reducing it substantially in the not-too-distant future.     

Changes in regional inequality in rural China: decomposing the Gini index by income sources

A new method is proposed to decompose inequality changes as measured by the Gini index into structural effects, real inequality effects and interactive effects. Application of the method to updated Chinese data reveals that structural effects represent the driving force underlying the increasing trend in regional income inequality in rural China. Policy implications are explored. In addition to these contributions, considerable efforts are made to construct the income data used in the article. Pitfalls in measuring income inequality in rural China are discussed.     

Assessing the Impact of Direct Payments Convergence on Farm Income Inequality: The Case of Italian Farms

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of the convergence process of direct payments (DPs) on farm income inequality. The analysis uses the Gini coefficient concept and its decomposition on the FADN Italian sample in 2014 and 2019 to assess the impact of the DPs reform in Italy. Results of the analysis show that a marginal increase in direct payments will reduce income concentration. However, a shift of resources toward mountain areas could occur. The results of the analysis have some policy implications regarding the application of the convergence mechanism of the CAP in Italy: in fact, the convergence process leads to a redistribution of resources in favour of mountain areas. These results could feed the debate on the future of CAP direct payments after 2020, when the cut or, at least, the reduction of DPs could increase income concentration.     

The Distributional Impact of Direct Payments on Irish Farm Incomes

The objective of this paper is to analyse the distributional effects of the different income components of Irish farm income with a Gini comparison method and by disaggregating the overall Gini coefficient of income inequality by income source. Using individual farm data for 1992 and 1996, the impact on farm income distribution of the MacSharry CAP reform is assessed. In addition, the change in the Gini coefficient between these years is decomposed into the changes in the within‐source distribution of each income stream and the share of each income stream. The favourable movement in the Gini coefficient is found to be due to the introduction of direct payments, which target less well‐off farmers. Market income remains the single largest influence on deciding the income ranking of a farm while contributing less to total income than before.     

Thinking about the Local and the Global in the Algerian Context

This article poses questions arising from research on local and the global cultural flows in struggles for self-determination to draw attention to some complexities. While we may think in terms of a relationship between the local and the global, rather than a uni-directional flow from the global to the local, it is important to hold on to the way in which other relations, notably those of power, also impact on the way this relationship is constructed. In different contexts there are trends or hierarchies which may affect how the local relates to the global and the global impacts on the local. After briefly surveying theoretical debates about the local and the global, I ask whether our work on conflict and self-determination is suggesting any new ways of looking at this relationship. The argument is illustrated throughout with materials from a case study of Algeria drawing particularly on the media and migration.