Expenditure Inequality in Indonesia, 2008–2010: A Spatial Decomposition Analysis and the Role of Education

Based on the 2008–2010 Susenas panel data, this study examines expenditure inequality from spatial perspectives in Indonesia, using three decomposition methods: (i) a conventional Theil index decomposition; (ii) an alternative Theil index decomposition proposed by Elbers et al. (2008); and (iii) the Blinder?Oaxaca decomposition. Our results show that overall inequality in per capita expenditure increases between 2008 and 2010, which coincides with a rising trend in the official Gini coefficient. The contribution of inequality within urban and rural areas to total inequality is larger than that of inequality between urban and rural areas. Looking within urban and rural areas, urban inequality is significantly higher than rural inequality. Java‐Bali in particular records very high urban inequality. Overall, urban inequality increases, urban–rural inequality remains stable, rural inequality decreases, and inequality at the national level increases. Although urban–rural inequality has a relatively low share in overall inequality, the share is not small enough to ignore its impact. Furthermore, when using the alternative decomposition method, the contribution of urban–rural inequality increases substantially. The present study also found that educational differences appear to have played an important role in expenditure inequality within urban areas and between urban and rural areas.     

Analysing post-apartheid poverty trends by geo-type, 1997–2012: The understated role of urbanisation and social grants

This article investigates poverty trends in post-apartheid South Africa with an explicit focus on differences between rural and urban areas. Using nationally representative household survey data from 1997–2012, I first describe changes in population characteristics and household access to different income sources and services, by urban–rural geo-type. Income data are then used to generate poverty statistics, which cast light on divergent trends in rural and urban areas. Next, I employ a poverty decomposition method to further explore some potential reasons why the poverty trends in rural and urban areas have differed. Data from the Afrobarometer are then used to probe how subjective non-monetary welfare has changed over time across geo-types. The evidence from all surveys suggests that the dramatic increase in access to services and social grants in rural areas has played a vital role in poverty reduction.     

Modelling regional imbalances in English plebeian migration to late eighteenth‐century London†

Using a substantial set of vagrancy removal records for Middlesex (1777–86) giving details of the place of origin of some 11,500 individuals, and analysing these records using a five‐variable gravity model of migration, this article addresses a simple question: from which parts of England did London draw its lower‐class migrants in the late eighteenth century? It concludes, first, that industrializing areas of the north emerged as a competitor for potential migrants—contributing relatively fewer migrants than predicted by the model. Rising wage rates in these areas appear to explain this phenomenon. Second, it argues that migration from urban centres in the west midlands and parts of the West Country, including Bristol, Birmingham, and Worcester, was substantially higher than predicted, and that this is largely explained by falling wage rates and the evolution of an increasingly efficient travel network. Third, for the counties within about 130 kilometres of the capital, this article suggests that migration followed the pattern described in the current literature, with London drawing large numbers of local women in particular. It also argues that these short‐distance migrants came from a uniquely wide number of parishes, suggesting a direct rural‐to‐urban path.     

Constructing migration: Infrastructure,poverty and development in KwaZulu‐Natal

Migration and population movement are probably the most neglected of the significant dynamics behind rural poverty in South Africa. Little is known about how people move from place to place, and much of what we thought we knew may be incorrect. In KwaZulu‐Natal job search is no longer the single dominating reason given for migration. Instead, infrastructure ties with it for first place today, with land close behind. The first article in this two‐part report notes that as many as two thirds of the province's disadvantaged families have broken away from their communities of origin and moved at least once during their lifetimes. Perhaps three million have migrated in the last fifteen years. A second unexpected finding is the predominance of rural‐to‐rural migration. Three quarters of all moves recorded were rural to rural, with many orientated towards advantaged rural areas around small towns and secondary cities. Results show how streams are channelled towards poverty or opportunity, and argue for a review of prevailing concepts of rural‐urban relations which structure delivery efforts. The second article, to follow later, notes that recorded income levels are now higher in some rural destination areas than in the urban shack communities that accommodate rural‐to‐urban migrants. Results of various studies presented show how access to information affects migration patterns, and the article also explores the role of infrastructure as a determining force in the regional distribution of population and as a factor in people's own bootstrap anti‐poverty efforts.     

The determinants of rural and urban household poverty in the North West province of South Africa

Based on standard poverty measures, the extent of poverty in the North West province is on average worse than in South Africa. For instance, the poverty gap ratio for North West is twice that of the South African average, and the FGT index is three times as high. This article therefore aims to identify the determinants of rural and urban poverty in the North West province of South Africa. Using data gathered from a survey of 593 black households across the province, probit model estimates suggest that the major significant determinants of household poverty in both rural and urban areas are education and household size. A difference between rural and urban poverty is, first, that extra female adults in a rural household raise the probability of poverty. Secondly, having a migrant (out) worker as head of the household in rural areas lowers the probability of poverty, while this does not apply to urban households. A sensitivity analysis for the robustness of the results over a range of poverty lines reveals that the impact of education is much stronger for poorer households than for more wealthy households.     

多维视角下农村贫困的测度与分析

近年来,学者和政策制定者逐渐将贫困的研究视角从单一的收入贫困扩展到多维贫困。文章基于CFPS的2010年基线调查数据,采取Alkire和Foster提出的双界限方法,根据《中国农村扶贫开发纲要(2011-2020)》提出的目标任务选取贫困维度,对我国农村的多维贫困进行了测度,并对测度结果进行了稳健性分析。测度结果表明,我国农村多维贫困状况比收入贫困状况恶劣。维度分解结果表明,社会保障和生活质量等维度的剥夺情况比较严重。地区分解结果显示,西部地区被剥夺状况高于中、西部地区。稳健性分析结果显示,测度结果对权重的选取是稳健的。因此,我国在此10年中,应从多维视角识别农村贫困,有针对性地提高扶贫政策的有效性。     

Labour market dimensions of poverty in Indonesia

This paper focuses on labour market issues relevant to poverty alleviation. Patterns of participation, unemployment and employment are examined among the poor compared with the non-poor in general, among urban and rural households, and among various socio-demographic groups. Using data from the 2002 National Socio-Economic Survey, the paper finds that low participation in the workforce and high unemployment, while important, are less closely related to poverty status than expected, especially among spouses of household heads. However, sector of employment and underemployment are closely associated with poverty, especially for those in informal jobs in urban areas; in rural areas, the poor are heavily concentrated in agriculture. Among the poor, young people and females are more likely to be underemployed and to work in agriculture than prime-age workers. The data suggest that labour market policies that tend to protect those in formal sector employment are unlikely to reduce poverty much, if at all.     

Economic growth and poverty reduction in Indonesia before and after the asian financial crisis

This paper assesses the relationship between poverty reduction and economic growth in Indonesia before and after the Asian financial crisis. The annual rate of poverty reduction slowed significantly in the post-crisis period. However, the trend in the growth elasticity of poverty indicates that the power of each percentage point of economic growth to reduce poverty did not change much between the two periods. In both, service sector growth made the largest contribution to poverty reduction in both rural and urban areas. Industrial sector growth largely became irrelevant for poverty reduction in the post-crisis period even though the sector contributed the second-largest share of GDP. Agricultural sector growth, mean-while, remained important, but in rural areas only. The findings suggest the need to formulate an effective strategy to promote sectoral growth in order to speed up the pace of poverty reduction.     

Trade Opening,Fiscal Reforms,Poverty, and Inequality: A CGE Analysis for Bangladesh

We assess the short‐ and long‐run impacts of tariff reform policies on Bangladeshi households' poverty and income distribution by developing an 86‐sector, four‐factor, and nine‐household‐group computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The main findings are that the complete removal of tariffs leads to a decrease in overall poverty with rich household groups in a relatively better position. In the short run poverty incidence increases for rural landless, urban illiterate, and low‐educated household groups whereas rural large farmer and urban medium household groups enjoy improvements in all poverty indicators. In terms of income distribution, trade liberalization enhances inequality slightly, but there is a tendency towards more equitable distribution in the long run. The choice of a fiscal compensatory mechanism with consumption tax is likely to play a negative role in terms of poverty and inequality in the short run; however, interestingly, the results are pro‐poor in the long run.     

Firm agglomeration and local poverty reduction: evidence from an economy in transition

We examine the linkages between firm agglomeration and the welfare of households in Vietnam. We measured firm agglomeration by per capita firm output at the district level and household welfare by per capita income, expenditure, and poverty. We find that firm agglomeration helps households move from the informal sector to the formal sector. As a result, there is a positive effect of firm agglomeration on per capita income, per capita expenditure, and poverty reduction, albeit of a small and time‐decreasing magnitude. The effect of firm agglomeration on per capita expenditure tends to be higher for households with men, younger, and more educated heads than households with women, older, and less educated heads. Households in rural areas and those that do not have crop land are more likely to benefit from firm agglomeration than those living in urban areas and having crop land.     

Vulnerability to poverty in China: a subjective poverty line approach

Wide arrays of econometric techniques have been proposed to assess vulnerability to poverty. All such measures attempt to determine the probability to fall (or remain) into poverty given households’ characteristics. We have used cross-section data from the Chinese Household Income Project Series and subjective poverty lines to shed light on the sources of uncertainty in China. The lack of a comprehensive pension system and distance from the markets raise vulnerability in rural areas, whereas the hukou registration system has generated a growing mass of exploited and unprotected migrants in urban areas.     

Urban–Rural Differences in Costs of Living and Their Impact on Poverty Measures

This note demonstrates empirically the importance of urban-rural price differences and inflation figures in poverty analysis. Using data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Survei Sosial Ekonomi Nasional, widely known as Susenas), it shows that the urban-rural food price differential during the period 1987–96 was 13–16%, not 28–52% as impli by the ‘official’ food poverty lines. The urban–rural poverty comparisons and the components of change in simulated poverty estimates presented here therefore differ from those based on the ‘official’ figures. They indicate that migration to urban areas between 1987 and 1996 accounts for a significant part of the observed decline in poverty. The paper concludes that it is essential to use accurate urban–rural cost of living differences in deriving aggregate, urban and rural poverty estimates.     

Spatial Comparisons of Poverty and Inequality in Living Standards in Malawi

The paper looks at poverty and inequality across areas in Malawi. The focus is on both monetary (consumption) and non‐monetary (health and education) dimensions of well‐being. Stochastic poverty dominance tests show that rural areas are poorer in the three dimensions regardless of poverty line chosen. Stochastic inequality dominance tests find that the north and south dominate the centre in health inequality, and there is no dominance between the north and south. With respect to education inequality, dominance is declared for the south‐centre pair only. A subgroup decomposition analysis finds that the south contributes the most to consumption and education poverty, while the centre is the largest contributor to health poverty. We establish that within‐area inequalities (vertical inequalities) rather than between‐area inequalities (horizontal inequalities) are the major driver of consumption, health and education inequality in Malawi.     

China's urban poor – Comparing twice poverty between residents and migrants in 2013 and 2018

Using data from the China Household Income Project in 2013 and 2018, this paper studies relative poverty among rural hukou holders living in urban China and urban hukou holders. People living in households with an income below a fixed percent of the median per-capita income and wealth below the same fixed percent of the median per-capita wealth among urban residents are deemed as relative poor. Although migrants with rural hukou living in urban China were more prone to twice poverty than urban residents in 2013, this was not generally the case in 2018.A multivariate analysis shows several factors to be related to the probability of being twice relative poor. Even considering these factors, a rural hukou status increased the probability of being twice relative poor in 2013. In contrast, such an excess risk of being twice relative poor was much lesser outspoken in middle and low-ranking cities in 2018. However, rural to urban migrants living in high-ranking cities had a somewhat higher risk of being relative poor than urban residents with the same characteristics in 2018.     

Perspectives on poverty and income inequality in Brazil

Exploratory analysis of the advance tabulations of the 1980 Brazilian demographic census suggests the proportion of the population in poverty fell during the decade 1970–1980. The degree of inequality of the distribution of the income of individuals apparently remained about the same from 1970 to 1980, after rising in the 1960s. This near-constancy of the overall inequality of income distribution resulted from two offsetting changes: a narrowing of the gap between rural and urban incomes, and greater inequality within the rural sector.     

Urban–rural inequalities in health care delivery in South Africa

Urban–rural inequalities in access to health care services continue to persist in South Africa, and in almost all cases discriminate against the poor. In certain cases disparities are even worse in urban areas, although levels of service delivery admittedly are consistently worse in rural areas. People in rural areas are generally more dependent on public and other health care services than on private services, compared with people living in urban areas. There is limited evidence of substantial intra-urban disparities, with inequality being worse in smaller urban settlements (i.e. towns) as opposed to larger ones (i.e. small cities and metropolitan areas). The article emphasises the important role the envisaged future decentralisation of selected health services to local government is likely to play in addressing these inequalities and the lack of service delivery at this level.     

Land Ownership as an Urban Employment Disincentive for Rural Migrants in China

When landowning rural migrants in urban areas in China become unemployed, they retain the option to return home to agricultural work. As a result, the opportunity cost of the loss of employment for these migrants declines. In addition, the potential wealth arising from compensation for expropriated rural land increases significantly with ongoing urbanization in China. This weakens the incentive for landowning rural migrants to work as hard in urban employment as they might otherwise. In this paper, we employ the Floating Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey for Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in 2012, as surveyed by the Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission to assess the employment disincentives induced by rural land ownership. We find that compared with landless rural migrants, landowning rural migrants generally have less job stability and lower salaries.     

Expropriation with hukou change and labour market outcomes in China

We study the labour market outcomes of Chinese household members changing their registration status (hukou) from rural to urban as a result of land expropriation using panel data from the 2008–2010 Rural Urban Migration in China (RUMiC). While it is largely unclear the extent to which expropriation can be viewed as an event exogenous to individual and household choices, we deal with the potential selection bias of being expropriated by using the methodology proposed by Oster (2019). Gaining an urban hukou is found to improve the labour market outcomes of expropriated household heads and spouses relative to comparable rural stayers and rural-urban migrants. In particular, hukou-changers gain better access to permanent jobs in the public sector through formal search channels. We also find that expropriated parents invest substantially more in children's human capital as compared to rural parents, suggesting that leveling the hukou status among children can contribute to reducing intergenerational inequality.     

Two Decades of Declining Poverty but Rising Inequality in Laos

Over the past two decades consumption inequality has risen within Laos, while absolute poverty incidence has halved. The estimated Gini coefficient of private household expenditures per person rose from 0.311 to 0.364. This increase in the sample‐based estimate of inequality was statistically significant and occurred in all regions, in both rural and urban areas and among all major ethnic, educational and sectoral employment categories. Within‐group increases in inequality dominated between‐group changes. Official policy largely overlooks this point, focusing on reducing inequality between rather than within major groups. Economic inequality seems certain to become a more pressing policy concern.     

A comparison of the migration process to an urban barrio and to a rural community: two case studies

The results of 2 case studies on migration in Colombia are outlined and compared. The 1st study examines inmigration to a shantytown, El Carmen, in Bogota. The 2nd study involves inmigration to a community in the eastern interior of Colombia, Granada. Migrants' motives, paths of migration, and personal characteristics are examined, suggesting hypotheses for future studies. Economic reasons were most often listed as motives for moving by both the residents of Granada and El Carmen. The type of economic motives varied greatly between the 2 communities. Reasons such as "looking for land," "establishing a business," or "to find a better life" ranked high in importance among Granada residents. These motives, along with the flight from violence, indicate that the independence provided by land and small business affords the inmigrants to Granada a certain security. Inmigrants to El Carmen were seeking employment. Only 34% of the migrants to El Carmen made 1 or more moves before settling in Bogota. 90% of the rural to rural migrants made 1 or more stops before moving to Granada. 68% of the migrants to El Carmen were born within 100 miles of Bogota while only 18% of the migrants to Granada were born within a 100 mile radius of the community. The usual pattern of the migrant to Granada was to move to a neighboring village, town, or city regardless of whether it was closer to Granada or not. The majority of inmigrants to Granada moved from distances greater than 100 miles. Over 70% of the inmigrants were born in towns and villages of more than 2000 population. If a nucleus of 10,000 inhabitants or more are considered urban, then 46% of the rural to rural migrants resided in urban areas prior to moving to Granada. This suggests that a sizable proportion of the migration to Granada is really urban to rural frontier. Studies done in Colombia and Brazil indicate that migrants to rural areas have a lower educational level than migrants to urban areas. Data from El Carmen and Granada gives similar results. 20% of the migrant residents of El Carmen have a primary school education (5 years) compared with only 7% of the inmigrants to Granada. 81% of the migrant residents of El Carmen were in their teens, 20s, and 30s at the time of migration, while only 52% of the inmigrants to Granada were in the same category. Approximately 56% of the inmigrants to Granada were in the occupational categories of farm owner operator and farm renter or laborer as compared to only approximately 40% of the inmigrants to El Carmen. The data indicate that a majority of the shantytown inmigrants come directly from small communities and travel short distances to Bogota. This is consistent with other findings of rural to urban migration. It is hypothesized that the socioeconomic level of migrants in a certain migratory stream is related to the perceived opportunity in the receiving area.