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 Joint Estimation of Child Participation in Schooling and Employment: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents

This paper uses data from Peru, Pakistan and Ghana to analyse simultaneously child labour and child schooling, and compares them between these countries. We use a multinomial logit estimation procedure that analyses the participation and non-participation of children in schooling and in employment and, in particular, allows the possibility that a child combines schooling with employment or does neither. We also use an ordered probit estimation procedure based on a ranking of the various child schooling/employment/non-schooling/non-employment outcomes. The results point to both similarities and striking dissimilarities in the nature of child labour and child schooling between the chosen countries. For example, in Pakistan, but not in Peru, the girl child's ordering of schooling/employment outcomes shows her at a position of extreme disadvantage. Household poverty discourages a child from achieving superior outcomes, but the effect varies markedly across the three countries.     

Agricultural commercialisation,asset growth and poverty in rural Vietnam

Poverty remains a substantial threat in rural areas of many developing countries, and solving this problem requires an in-depth understanding of the income generating capacity that determines poverty. This paper examines the impact of agricultural commercialisation on the capability of rural households to accumulate and productively use assets and reduce structural and multidimensional poverty. A longitudinal dataset of around 2000 households with a total of 9781 observations from five rural surveys undertaken in the period 2008–2017 in Vietnam is used. Results from a fixed effects regression with an instrumental variable and a control function approach show that agricultural commercialisation has a positive effect on the accumulation of assets and reduces multidimensional and structural poverty over time. However, the effect is not homogeneous and is larger for households that are not mainly engaged in rice commercialisation. This suggests that commercialisation can be a path out of poverty, especially if policy makers move towards utilising other crops instead of rice.     

Governance and Agricultural Production Efficiency: A Cross‐Country Aggregate Frontier Analysis

This study uses a stochastic frontier approach to investigate the relationship between six governance indicators and agricultural efficiency. We find that improvements in rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness enhance agricultural productivity significantly if each indicator enters the inefficiency equation independently. When all six indicators are included in the equation, we find that an improvement in rule of law raises agricultural efficiency significantly, but increases in voice and accountability and political stability appear to significantly reduce agricultural efficiency. Grouping the six indicators into three dimensions, we find that an improvement in ‘respect for institutional framework’ raises agricultural efficiency significantly, but an enhancement in ‘selection of authority’ reduces agricultural efficiency significantly. Our results imply that poorer countries can enhance their agricultural efficiency substantially by strengthening the state and citizens’ respect for institutional framework. However, our results show that greater democracy is associated with lower agricultural efficiency. This finding is consistent with interest group capture and political failure arguments of the political economy literature.     

Trade and the Political Economy of Food Standards

This article presents a political economy model of public standards in an open economy. We use the model to derive the political optimum and to analyse different factors that have an influence on this political equilibrium. We analyse the relationship between trade and the political equilibria and compare the political outcome with the social optimum to identify under which cases political considerations lead to standards being set ‘too low’ or ‘too high’, and which standards could be labelled as protectionist measures.     

2020年后中国多维相对贫困标准:国际经验与政策取向

2020年后,中国扶贫工作将由消除绝对贫困向缓解发展不平衡、不充分的相对贫困转变。本文首先回顾了绝对贫困和相对贫困标准的相关文献,基于可行能力理论从"贫"和"困"的视角构建了多维相对贫困标准概念框架,然后在对基本需要法和能力方法进行理论分析的基础上,结合典型国家的国别经验研究,提出了中国2020年后多维相对贫困标准的政策取向。本文认为,2020年后中国应采用多维相对贫困标准,没有必要与OECD国家相对贫困标准接轨。多维相对贫困标准,既要包括反映"贫"的经济维度,也要包括反映"困"的社会发展维度,还要包括生态环境维度:在经济维度,需要考虑收入和就业两个方面;在社会发展维度,需要考虑教育、健康、社会保障、信息获得等方面;而新发展理念以及生态补偿脱贫实践经验要求把生态环境纳入多维贫困框架中。     

Urban poverty and the politics of caste and religion in early 20th century North India: Implications for development practice and research

Abstract

This paper seeks to bring out the importance of engaging with the themes of religious and ethnic politics in development studies. With case studies from urban north India in the early 20th century, the paper argues that religion and caste are central to both the incidence and conditions of poverty and to the experience of development and change for the poor. The paper shows that with rapid social and economic transformation, various groups of the low caste poor refashioned and reformulated their religious ideas and caste ideologies, in an attempt to construct a political vocabulary and a cognitive framework with which to conceptualize the changing nature of social relations, deprivation, poverty and inequality, as well as to question or challenge them. Drawing lessons from these cases, the paper also advocates the need to take on board the politics of caste and religion, not only as an academic exercise, but also in development practice, instead of ignoring or condemning them as anachronistic and backward. A serious engagement with religious or ethnic politics amongst the poor, both ideologically and organizationally, may well enable development activists to facilitate grassroots initiative and involvement, and thus achieve a greater degree of democratization in development practice.     

Twenty-five years of Living Under Contract: Contract farming and agrarian change in the developing world

The expansion of contract farming schemes through regions of the developing world in the era of the globalization of agriculture raises questions that are central to the study of agrarian political economy. Contract farming has extended the footprint of commodity production and integrated land and labour not otherwise captured in forms of direct production and marketing. 25 years after the publication of Living Under Contract: Contract Farming and Agrarian Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, a foundational collection edited by Peter Little and Michael Watts, it is necessary to take stock of the most prominent developments in the practice of contract farming and in the political economy literature studying it. The ultimate contribution of Living Under Contract was framing contract farming as expressing the unevenness of power relations in agriculture and grounding it in specific political, historical and social contexts that were not examined in the mainstream accounts. This introduction to the special issue revisits the questions that have remained relevant or re-emerged in the political economy literature on contract farming; it raises new questions that reflect contemporary developments and it explains how the papers in this collection contribute to the expansion of the theoretical and empirical horizons of the research on contemporary contract farming in low and middle-income countries.     

Does multilateral trade liberalization help reduce poverty in developing countries?

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the impact of multilateral trade liberalization on poverty in developing countries from a macroeconomic perspective. The empirical analysis suggests that multilateral trade liberalization is conducive to poverty reduction in developing countries. This outcome therefore suggests that greater multilateral cooperation on trade matters among countries, in particular the Members of the World Trade Organization, would allow further trade liberalization at the multilateral level to the benefit of poor people in developing countries.     

基于生活水平维度的县级贫困度量研究——以武陵片区北部为例

提高贫困人口瞄准和识别的准确度是农村扶贫开发需要解决的首要问题,近年来从多个角度进行多维贫困的精准度量与分析成为国内外扶贫领域的研究热点。该研究以Sen的能力方法理论为基础,以Alkire和Foster的多维贫困指数(MPI)测算指标体系为参考,结合研究区实际情况,建立了生活水平维度贫困指标体系,利用武陵片北部11个县的贫困农户调查数据进行了基于"A-F"双临界值法的县级贫困人口量算,并通过"维度加总-分解"算法进行了空间分异分析。结果显示:生活水平维度中通电与资产指标对研究区贫困发生率和多维贫困指数影响最小,燃料类型指标影响最大;11个县贫困程度由大到小依次为:巴东县石柱土家族自治县秭归县建始县来凤县恩施市鹤峰县利川市丰都县咸丰县黔江区;依据房屋结构、燃料类型、饮水情况3个指标可将11个县分为甲乙丙3种类型,不同类型县的主要致贫因素不同,当地政府应根据各县具体情况采取差异化扶贫政策。     

Climate,weather and child health in Burkina Faso

It is now clear that anthropogenic climate change is having a negative impact on human health. In this paper, we provide the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of climatic stressors on child health in Burkina Faso. We undertake a rigorous empirical analysis of the impact of climate and weather shocks on mortality, stunting (height-for-age Z-score) and wasting (weight-for-age Z-score), using Demographic and Health Surveys, combined with high-resolution meteorological data, controlling for household and individual covariates. We find robust evidence that both lifetime and short-term exposure to high temperatures and droughts have a negative impact on child health, as do increased temperature anomalies during crop seasons, suggesting a link between climate and health through domestic food production. Income and household wealth, access to electricity, sanitation and a health facility for childbirth negate some adverse impacts of climate change. Combining our econometric estimates with updated CMIP6 scenarios, we compute policy-relevant projections of future child health. Our results show that future warming is projected to significantly increase child mortality, and share of underweight and stunted children, in all but the Paris Agreement scenario. Given the links between health, a key element of human capital, and economic growth, our findings and projections provide yet more evidence of the importance of a rapid reduction in global emissions combined with adaptation funding, if lower-income countries are to achieve poverty reduction and increasing prosperity.     

重点国有林区多维贫困的测度

基于2013年重点国有林区民生监测项目的调研数据,运用A-F多维贫困测量方法,从教育、健康和生活水平3个维度共8个指标对重点国有林区的多维贫困进行测量,并对指标和地区进行分解。测量结果表明:重点国有林区有35.7%的职工住户家庭存在至少3个指标的贫困。指数分解结果表明:卫生设施、饮用水和生活燃料3个指标对重点国有林区多维贫困指数的贡献率最大;四大国有森工林区都存在不同程度的多维贫困,其中内蒙古森工林区的多维贫困状况最为严重。研究认为,应从多个维度改善重点国有林区的贫困状况,加大对教育、健康、卫生设施、住房等多方面的扶贫力度。     

基于内外因素整合视角下深度贫困地区农户多维贫困测度与分析——以新疆南疆三地州为例

文章根据马克思的内外因理论,从内外因素整合视角出发,构建农户多维贫困指标体系,以2017年新疆南疆三地州的农户调研数据为样本,采用A-F方法对深度贫困地区农户多维贫困进行测度与分解。结果表明,南疆三地州农户在参与新型农业经营主体、职业技能培训、公共交通服务和疾病等方面贫困特征明显,面临多维贫困问题;多维贫困发生率高达54.9%,多维贫困指数为23.58%。多维贫困指数按指标分解显示,职业技能培训、参与新型农业经营主体和疾病是导致农户多维贫困的主要内部原因,而公共交通服务是其主要外部原因;按是否收入贫困农户分解显示,非收入贫困农户也面临着多维贫困问题。     

Changing Narratives of Violence,Struggle and Resistance: Bangladeshis and the Competition for Resources in the Global City

Tower Hamlets contains the largest concentration of Bangladeshis in the UK and they have been very successful in campaigning for resources in a borough which has high poverty levels in the north, while to the south it has been radically transformed by global capital and new white middle class "immigrants" employed in the service sector. A debate concerning poverty, social exclusion and the growing incidence of criminality among third generation Bangladeshis was dominated during the 1980s by secularists whose hegemony was challenged during the 1990s by Islamist groups. This struggle between secularist and Islamist leaders is not just a local phenomenon since it is shaped by ideological, political and social ties with Bangladesh and with other Muslim-majority countries. It raises the issue of how leaders seek to represent their "community"--variously defined--in a non-Muslim nation where state institutions (locally and nationally) attempt to co-opt community leaders through multiculturalist strategies. So far, the struggle has not been overshadowed by the kind of urban violence seen in other areas of substantial Bangladeshi population.     

World hunger and morality

Abstract

Ample food production and large surpluses result in farmers in developed countries having to cope with the consequences of over‐production, yet one in eight of the world's population suffers from malnutrition. The situation is not improving; a Fourth World is emerging in which 1.5bn people in 35 countries remain in poverty. Interest in their plight is, if anything, diminishing. Charity organizations make a contribution but government assistance is lagging. It is argued that the problems cannot be solved until paper pledges to create a world free from hunger are recognized as meaningless unless duties are specified. After considering different philosophical positions the argument is advanced that moral duties, like pure public goods, must be non‐excludable.     

Structure of Public Support for National Agricultural Research Systems: A Political Economy Perspective

This paper initiates development of a set of stylized facts concerning the structure of public support for national agricultural research systems (NARS) within a neoclassical political economy framework. The aim is to place public funding of NARS in the broader context of the overall level of direct government assistance to agriculture. Using a newly constructed data set on NARS expenditures over the 1970-85 period, we observe a growing disparity in agricultural research intensity ratios, which measure the level of public support for NARS in relation to agricultural gross domestic production (Aggdp ) between low and high-income countries. This growing disparity appears to be driven by much larger increases in support for agricultural research by high-income countries, coupled with a significantly slower growth in the size of their agricultural sector, despite the propensity of low and middle-income countries to increase real support to agricultural research. As per-capita incomes rise the public agricultural expenditure ratio, which measures public expenditures on agriculture relative to the size of the agricultural sector, Aggdp , increases substantially. Public expenditures on agriculture were indexed on agricultural and non-agricultural populations to give a rough indication of the increasing incentives for rural 'distributional coalitions' to seek a redistribution of public expenditures in their favor. A relative research expenditure (rre ) ratio is developed, which measures the proportion of total public expenditure on agriculture spent on agricultural research. It provides an indication of the relative importance given to research on agriculture within the constraints imposed by overall public spending on agriculture. In contrast to the agricultural research intensity ratios, the rre ratios suggest that agricultural research appears to command as large a share of the public purse devoted to agriculture in low and middle-income countries as it does in high-income countries. Expectations derived from the neoclassical political economy literature that research may have fared relatively better in high compared with low-income countries were not supported by the data.     

Research,development and scaling-up the adoption of fodder shrub innovations in East Africa

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face numerous limitations that hinder them from embracing improved agricultural practices and innovations with great potential for meaningful transformations of livelihoods. Consequently, farmers continue living in vicious cycles of poverty despite decades of government and donor expenditures on poverty alleviation. In the last two decades, research and development organizations collaborated in testing and validating selected fodder shrub species as reliable sources of less expensive and easily available protein feeds. With minimal interventions, the research findings have great potential to improve productivity for many smallholder farmers. Tested species include Calliandra calothyrsus, Leucaena spp., Chamaecytisus palmensis, Sesbania sesban, Morus alba and Gliricidia sepium. Dissemination and adoption surveys estimated that 205,000 smallholder farmers (40–50 per cent being women) had planted fodder shrubs by 2005. Currently, fodder shrubs contribute US$3.8 million annually to farmers' incomes and estimated potential annual income is US$81 million. Factors associated with success in fodder scaling-up include deliberate involvement of fodder technology champions, collective action in community mobilization and project implementation, pluralistic extension approaches, sustainable germplasm supply systems, broader partnerships and civil society campaigns. Constraints and challenges include: ineffective delivery of extension and research services, inhibitive policies, political interferences, frequent droughts and inadequate monitoring and evaluation systems.     

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.     

Why Beautify the Plaza? Reproducing Community in Decentralized Neoliberal Peru

Peruvian development and government analysts criticize communities for irrationally using local development funds deriving from recently instituted political decentralization to beautify their villages rather than to improve infrastructural services, education and health, or to alleviate poverty. This paper challenges this critique by explaining why such cosmetic improvements are of interest to rural people. Using a case study of the peasant community of Allpachico, I argue that these projects encourage the return of pensioners and visits from migrants. Residents and migrants are mutually dependent as a result of livelihood strategies based on agriculture and the foreign‐controlled resource extraction sector over the past 80 years. The relative position of these two groups in the social reproduction of the vernacular community has changed with the Peruvian political economy. Currently, in the neoliberal resource extraction economy, residents pragmatically opt to maintain relations with those who have stable wage or pension incomes.     

Small-holders and Water Resources: A Review Essay on the Economics of Locally-managed Irrigation

A vast literature on locally-managed irrigation systems provides important lessons regarding the experience of irrigators with community management. This review draws upon research in sociology, anthropology, political science, engineering and economic theory to suggest a framework for understanding institutions for governing irrigation systems. The review assesses measures of irrigation system performance, the importance of co-operation, the impact of heterogeneity among the water users on performance and co-operation, and the breadth of institutional forms observed in the field study literature. The review closes with a call for more structured qualitative measures of group performance and for more large-scale research of many irrigation systems to complement the case study focus of the existing literature.