POVERTY IN POLAND DURING THE 1990s: ARE THE RESULTS ROBUST?

This study examines the robustness of poverty measures for Poland in the 1990s to employed methods. At least two definitions or techniques of estimation are applied to each of the following components of poverty measures: (1) household well-being; (2) poverty line; (3) equivalence scales; and (4) poverty index. Furthermore, groups at risk of poverty are selected by means of decomposition of the poverty incidence and by estimation of the probit model. Relatively robust conclusions can be reached for trends in absolute poverty incidence, which show an inverted U-shape with rapidly increasing poverty rates in 1993–1995 and declining rates since, but with continued increases in relative poverty. Some robust correlates of high poverty (low education, unemployment, rural residence, large number of children) are also found.     

The impact of growth and inequality on rural poverty in China

This paper analyzes the evolution of poverty in China from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, employing a version of Shapley decomposition tailored to unit-record household survey data. The changes in poverty trends are attributed to two proximate causes—income growth and shifts in income distribution. Different data sets, poverty lines, poverty measures, and equivalence scales are used to examine the robustness of the results. Potential biases arising from ignoring differential regional prices and inflation are also investigated. Notwithstanding some ambiguities in the results, it is consistently found that rural poverty increased in the second half of the 1990s and adverse distributional changes are the main cause. Journal of Comparative Economics 34 (4) (2006) 694–712.     

Equity-regarding poverty measures: differences in needs and the role of equivalence scales

Abstract .  The paper investigates the definition of equity-regarding poverty measures when there are different household types in the population. It demonstrates the implications of a between-type regressive transfer principle for poverty measures, for the choice of poverty lines, and for the measurement of living standard. The role of equivalence scales, which are popular in empirical work on poverty measurement, is clarified.     

EQUIVALENCE SCALE SENSITIVITY OF POVERTY STATISTICS FOR THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

Using microdata from Household Budget Surveys of the Member States of the European Community, this paper examines the sensitivity of poverty statistics with respect to the choice of the equivalence scale. The results show that the ranking of the countries with respect to the overall poverty incidence is hardly affected when different equivalence scales are used. However, the composition of the poor population shows considerable changes when e.g. subjective equivalence scales are used instead of the OECD equivalence scale. The poverty incidence among specific household groups, such as single elderly and households with children, is particularly sensitive to the choice of the equivalence scale.     

International Poverty Comparisons on Unit Record Data of Developing and Developed Countries

Cross country poverty comparisons on unit records have, rarely, involved both developing and developed countries. The present study attempts to fill this gap by comparing poverty across fourteen nations with diverse economic and demographic characteristics and at vastly different stages of economic development. The study contains evidence on (a) cross country variation in the equivalence scales estimated in the presence of both household size economies and adult/child relativities, (b) impact of demographic adjustment of the poverty line, that incorporate household size and composition changes, on the poverty rates, and (c) sensitivity of the poverty estimates and their rankings to the ‘equivalence elasticity’. The study finds that country rankings based on per capita GNP bear very little resemblance with that based on the aggregate poverty rates. The latter hide substantial variation in the poverty estimates across different household types.     

收入增长与不平等对我国贫困的影响

本文运用两组家计调查数据,采用夏普里(Shaley)分解法实证分析了20世纪90年代收入增长和收入分配的变化在我国贫困变动中的作用,并特别考虑了不同贫困线、贫困指标及等价规模对实证结果的影响。分析结果表明,90年代前半期农村减贫的成功主要归因于收入的增长和不平等的下降。在90年代后半期,农村和城市都经历了不平等的快速上升和收入的缓慢增长。因此,这段时间减贫的速度下降,甚至贫困有所增加。     

EQUIVALENCE SCALES, WELL-BEING, INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY: SENSITIVITY ESTIMATES ACROSS TEN COUNTRIES USING THE LUXEMBOURG INCOME STUDY (LIS) DATABASE

The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) database on which this article is based offers researchers exciting new possibilities for international comparisons based on household income microdata. Among the choices the LIS microdata allows a researcher, e.g. income definition, income accounting unit, etc., is the choice of family equivalence scale, a method for estimating economic well-being by adjusting income for measurable differences in need.
The range of potential equivalence scales that can and are being used in the ten LIS countries and elsewhere to adjust incomes for size and related differences in need span a wide spectrum. The purpose of this paper is to review the available equivalence scales and to test the sensitivity of various income inequality and poverty measures to choice of equivalence scale using the LIS database. The results of our analysis indicate that choice of equivalence scale can sometimes systematically affect absolute and relative levels of poverty; and inequality and therefore rankings of countries (or population subgroups within countries). Because of these sensitivities, one must carefully consider summary statements and policy implications derived from cross-national comparisons of poverty and/or inequality.     

THE NON-CONSTANCY OF EQUIVALENCE SCALES

Comparisons of households of differing composition are usually achieved through the use of equivalence scales. It is well known that the choice of scales can have considerable impact on the conclusions drawn from studies of welfare and poverty. There is a considerable literature on the theoretical issues relating to equivalence scales, but applied work on income distribution and related areas almost invariably takes scales to be constant irrespective of income. This paper focuses on the relation of scale to income, by applying theoretical analysis to some simple household types. The conclusion is that scales are not constant and that current practice should be changed.     

The Impacts of Unemployment on Alternative Poverty Rates

The analysis uses March Current Population Survey data to estimate state-level cross-section/time-series models of the effects of the unemployment rate on alternative poverty rates. The measures include the official headcount rate, and alternatives based higher thresholds, revised equivalence scales and income defined as inclusive and exclusive of taxes and cash and in-kind transfers. The estimated effects turn critically on the measurement approaches, both for the total sample population and for four population sub-groups. For several alternative poverty rate measures, the unemployment rate has no significant impact on poverty. By contrast, real per-capita median earnings have strong and consistently negative effects on the poverty rates of all groups studied. The findings thus provide important lessons for researchers exploring the links between economic conditions and poverty, and for policy makers developing poverty reduction strategies.     

MEASURING POVERTY AND DEPRIVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

This paper compares a standard expenditure-based poverty measure with a specifically created composite measure of deprivation using household survey data from South Africa. While there is a strong overall correlation between expenditures and levels of deprivation, the correlation is much weaker among the worst-off South Africans. In addition, the two measures differ considerably in the impact of race, headship, location (urban, rural), and household size on expenditure poverty versus deprivation. In general, the deprivation measure finds more Africans, rural dwellers, members of de facto female-headed households, and members of smaller households deprived than expenditure poor. Only the differences in the effect of household size on poverty are sensitive to assumptions about equivalence scales. As a result, the two measures diverge greatly in identifying the poorest and most deprived sections of the population, which may have considerable consequences for targeting.     

省域相对贫困村多尺度空间格局与分异机制

文章基于多尺度、人—地系统的理论视角,以湖南省8 000个相对贫困村为研究对象,利用平均最邻近指数、空间基尼系数和空间自相关方法,从市级和县级两个尺度揭示了相对贫困村空间分布格局差异,运用空间计量模型识别出相对贫困村空间分异的影响因素,最后基于"四层一体"模型提炼出相对贫困村空间分异的机制。结果表明:(1)相对贫困村在市级尺度上均呈现集群分布模式,而在县级尺度上呈现出集群、离散和随机三种不同的模式。(2)市级和县级尺度上相对贫困村均呈现显著的全局空间自相关性,但在两个尺度上局部空间自相关性特征存在差异。(3)城镇化率、第一产业增加值占GDP比重、第二产业增加值占GDP比重、人均财政支出、文盲率、坡度、平均海拔是影响县级尺度相对贫困村空间差异的显著因素。(4)基于"四层一体"模型揭示出相对贫困村的空间分异机制。     

RELATIVE INEQUALITY AND POVERTY IN GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES USING ALTERNATIVE EQUIVALENCE SCALES

We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study to show the sensitivity of measures of relative economic well-being of persons in the U.S. and Germany using official equivalence scales and consumption-based country-specific equivalence scales developed for the two countries. Overall inequality and poverty levels are found not to be sensitive to the equivalence scale used. However, the official German equivalence scale yields quite different results from the others with respect to the relative income and poverty levels of vulnerable groups within the population, especially older single people.     

RANKING INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS WHEN NEEDS DIFFER

We derive criteria for ranking income distributions where households differ in equity-relevant non-income characteristics ('needs'). using methods which do not require cardinal specifications of equivalence scales. We consider comparisons for situations where the distributions of needs differ (eg. Cross nationally or intertemporally), building on the results of Atkinson and Bourguignon (1987) and Atkinson (1992). The modifications required when the individual rather than the household is the income-receiving unit are also discussed. We illustrate the methods with an analysis of changes in social welfare and poverty in the U.K. between 1981 and 1986.     

The distributional impact of public services when needs differ

Despite a broad consensus on the need to take into account the value of public services in distributional analysis, there is little reliable evidence on how inclusion of such non-cash income actually affects poverty and inequality estimates. In particular, the equivalence scales applied to cash income are not necessarily appropriate when including non-cash income, because the receipt of public services is likely to be associated with particular needs. In this paper, we propose a theory-based framework designed to provide a coherent evaluation of the distributional impact of local public services. The valuation of public services, identification of target groups, allocation of expenditures to target groups, and adjustment for differences in needs are derived from a model of local government spending behaviour. Using Norwegian data from municipal accounts and administrative registers we find that the inclusion of non-cash income reduces income inequality by about 15% and poverty rates by almost one-third. However, adjusting for differences in needs for public services across population subgroups offsets about half the inequality reduction and some of the poverty decrease.     

PRICES,INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY: METHODOLOGY AND INDIAN EVIDENCE

This paper uses a methodology for evaluating the distributional implications of price movement for inequality and poverty measurement. The methodology is based on a distinction between inequalities in nominal and real expenditure. The conversion of nominal to real expenditure takes into account the varying household preferences. The empirical application to the Indian budget datasets from NSS rounds 50, 55, and 61 shows the usefulness of the proposed procedures. The relative price changes in India have tended to be inequality and poverty reducing as confirmed by formal statistical tests. The result is robust to expenditure dependent equivalence scales. The progressivity of the relative price changes weakened in the second half of our time period as Fuel and Light overtook the composite group called “Miscellaneous” in recording the largest price increase. While the poverty rates registered a decline, which was marginal in the urban areas, there was a sharp increase in inequality.     

Income Mobility, Temporary and Permanent Poverty

This paper incorporates poverty persistence in a measure of aggreg ate poverty over two-periods by decomposing the Foster et al . (1984) class of poverty measures into those temporarily in poverty and those in poverty in both periods. An additional weight is added to the permanent component in forming an aggregate poverty measure over both periods; this weight reflects the degree of poverty-persistence aversion. The effect on aggregate poverty of mobility between permanent and temporary poverty is found to be unambiguous only in the case of the headcount poverty measure. Simulations are used to investigate the relationship between poverty and mobility. The effects of two different types of mobility (random proportio nal income changes and a systematic regression towards or away from the median) are isolated     

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSECUTIVE SPELLS OF POVERTY: A PATH‐DEPENDENT INDEX OF LONGITUDINAL POVERTY

In this paper we propose a new index of individual poverty in the longitudinal perspective, taking into account the way poverty and non‐poverty spells follow one another along individual life courses. The Poverty Persistence Index (PPI) is based on all the pairwise distances between the waves of poverty. The PPI is normalized and it assigns a higher degree of (longitudinal) poverty to people who experience poverty in consecutive, rather than separated, periods, for whom the distances from the poverty line are larger along time and moreover, when the worst years are consecutive and/or recent. We also propose an aggregate index of persistence in poverty (APPI) in order to measure the distribution of the persistence of poverty in a society, and evaluate at once the diffusion of poverty, its depth, duration, and recentness. The indices are tested in comparison with other measures from the literature both at the individual as well as at the societal level.     

HOUSEHOLD NEEDS AND POVERTY: WITH APPLICATION TO SPAIN AND THE U.K.

We examine the sensitivity of U.K.-Spanish poverty comparisons to variations in the dependence of equivalence scales on household size and composition, using evidence from national household budget surveys. We sum up these comparisons using subjective confidence levels. Taking into account the dissimilarities in the distribution of incomes and needs across countries, we find, inter alia , that although the poor are typically more numerous in Spain than in Britain, the actual headcount differences may vary by up to 10 percent of the population when needs allowances are altered, even when kept the same across the two countries. Comparisons of poverty composition across the two countries are also very sensitive to the choice of equivalence scale parameters. Generally, however, the proportion of single adults among the poor is much less important in Spain than in Britain, the reverse being true for households with three or more adults.     

Testing for poverty dominance: an application to Canada

Abstract The paper proposes and applies statistical tests for poverty dominance that check for whether poverty comparisons can be made robustly over ranges of poverty lines and classes of poverty indices. This helps provide both normative and statistical confidence in establishing poverty rankings across distributions. The tests, which can take into account the complex sampling procedures that are typically used by statistical agencies to generate household‐level surveys, are implemented using the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) for 1996, 1999, and 2002. Although the yearly cumulative distribution functions cross at the lower tails of the distributions, the more recent years tend to dominate earlier years for a relatively wide range of poverty lines. Failing to take into account SLID’s sampling variability (as is sometimes done) can inflate significantly one’s confidence in ranking poverty. Taking into account SLID’s complex sampling design (as has not been done before) can also decrease substantially the range of poverty lines over which a poverty ranking can be inferred.     

Household composition,Engel curves and welfare comparisons between households: A duality approach

This paper is about household composition effects in consumer theory. These are important for the specification and estimation of Engel curves and demand functions. The models examined here have important applications in the areas of the measurement of cost of living indices, the study of poverty and inequality and in certain aspects of social policy. The models are based on the approach of Barten (1964). Taste differences between households are parameterized in a way which has been called simple good augmenting or simple repackaging in the literature on quality change. In this theory, changes in household composition play an analogous role to price changes. ‘True household equivalent scales’ are developed which are analogous to true cost of living indices and permit welfare comparisons across households.