CHINESE POVERTY: ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ALTERNATIVE ASSUMPTIONS

This paper investigates how estimates of the extent and trend of consumption poverty in China between 1990 and 2004 vary as a result of alternative plausible assumptions concerning the poverty line and estimated levels of consumption. Our methodology focuses on the following sources of variation: purchasing power exchange rates (used to convert an international poverty line), alternative levels and distributions of private incomes, alternative estimates of the propensity to consume of different income groups, and alternative spatial and temporal price indices. We report national, urban and rural poverty estimates corresponding to distinct assumptions. It is widely believed that substantial poverty reduction took place in China in the 1990s, and we find this conclusion to be largely robust to the choice of assumptions, although estimates of the extent of Chinese poverty, and therefore of world poverty, in any year are greatly influenced by this choice.     

关于森的贫困度量方法及该领域最近的研究进展

在这篇文章中,我们应用贫困度量的公理化方法对森的贫困指数提出了一个统一的理论框架.这一理论框架清晰地表明,这些指数与一个特定的社会福利函数之间存有密切的联系,而且,我们发现这些指数具有相同的可分的乘积结构.因为这个性质,这些指数无论是从直观的角度还是从几何学的角度都更加便于理解,同时也更便于计算.这些发现使森的贫困指数可以直接在发达国家和发展中国家的扶贫政策分析和政策制定过程中得到应用.     

A NON‐PARAMETRIC MEASURE OF POVERTY ELASTICITY

We estimate the growth elasticity of poverty (GEP) using recently developed non‐parametric panel methods and the most up‐to‐date and extensive poverty data from the World Bank, which exceeds 500 observations in size and represents more than 96 percent of the developing world's population. Unlike previous studies which rely on parametric models, we employ a non‐parametric approach which captures the non‐linearity in the relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty. We find that the growth elasticity of poverty is higher for countries with fairly equal income distributions, and declines in nations with greater income disparities. Moreover, when controlling for differences in estimation technique, we find that the reported values of the GEP in the literature (based on the World Bank's now‐defunct 1993‐PPP based poverty data) are systematically larger in magnitude than estimates based on the latest 2005‐PPP based data.     

DYNAMIC WELFARE COST OF STAGNATION: AN ALTERNATIVE MEASURE TO THE LUCAS–OBSTFELD MODEL

The present paper proposes an alternative measure to the Lucas–Obstfeld model to analyze the welfare costs of stagnation, and provides a practical illustration of both the Lucas–Obstfeld model and the alternative model. Compared with the Lucas–Obstfeld model, the alternative model can evaluate: (i) whether policy was implemented in a timely fashion; (ii) whether the policy cost was expensive compared with the cost of stagnation; and (iii) whether the policy implemented was effective or whether an additional policy is required.     

MEASURING MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF VARIOUS APPROACHES

This paper makes a systematic comparison of four approaches to multidimensional poverty analysis based respectively on the theory of fuzzy sets, information theory, efficiency analysis and axiomatic derivations of poverty indices. The database was the 1995 Israeli Census that provided information on the ownership of various durable goods. There appears to be a fair degree of agreement between the various multidimensional poverty indices concerning the identification of the poor households. The four approaches have also shown that poverty decreases with the schooling level of the head of the household, first decreases and then increases with his/her age and with the size of the household. Poverty is higher when the head of the household is single and lower when he/she is married, lowest when the head of the household is Jewish and highest when he/she is Muslim. Poverty is also higher among households whose head immigrated in recent years, does not work or lives in Jerusalem. These observations were made on the basis of logit regressions. This impact on poverty of many of the variables is not very different from the one that is observed when poverty measurement is based only on the income or the total expenditures of the households.     

ANALYSIS OF POVERTY AND EFFICIENCY: AN EARNINGS FRONTIER APPROACH

The paper introduces the concept of an earnings frontier in explaining monthly consumption expenditure (a proxy for income) in terms of human capital and endowments of a household. Individuals who translate their potential earning into actual earnings enjoy a fully efficient position. In contrast, individuals who earn less than their potential earnings suffer from some kind of earnings inefficiency. The paper estimates an earnings frontier using the Corrected Ordinary Least Square (COLS) method and classifies households in terms of efficiency scores. Splitting the sample into an efficient and an inefficient part based on the estimated frontier and a bench mark efficiency score, the status of poverty in the two parts (groups) is studied. The poverty gap between the groups is then decomposed into a characteristics effect and a coefficients effect using the familiar Oaxaca decomposition methodology. The paper also tries to establish a link between the notion of efficiency and the coefficients effect in the Oaxaca decomposition methodology. The results obtained are interpreted in light of the poor but efficient hypothesis.     

THE CHARACTERIZATION OF GOODS AND SERVICES: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH

The definitions of goods and services have been debated among economists for more than two centuries. This article seeks to consider the definitions currently used from a critical perspective and to offer a new general definition of services that is compatible with the existence of several demand rationales.     

DO HMOS ENCOURAGE PREVENTION? AN ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE PLANS

We examine consumers' choice of preventive care and providers' choice of capacity (which affects the transaction costs of consuming health care) under alternative health care financing plans. We show that consumers choose Pareto-optimal prevention and providers choose optimal capacity under a pure feE-for-service (FFS) plan and under a mixed plan that includes an up-front fee and a fee for service. Under a pure prepaid plan, however, consumers may over- or underconsume prevention. In the former case, capacity restrictions under such a plan (e.g., long office waits, limited options) may be interpreted as a second-best response to overconsumption. We also find that the dollar costs of health care are higher under the prepaid plan. These conclusions cast doubt on some of the presumed advantages of HMOs.     

THE GINI-TYPE FUNCTIONS: AN ALTERNATIVE DERIVATION

The purpose of this note is to propose an alternative and intuitively simpler derivation of the Gini coefficient (in Section l), to show how it can be generalized and how then a number of coefficients (concentration coefficient, Kakwani's progressivity index) are obtained directly from this generalization (Section 2), and finally to use this approach to obtain some Gini relationships (Section 3).     

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.     

ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR POLLUTION CONTROL: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF BENEFITS AND COSTS

In July 1989, the Bush administration proposed a new, dramatic approach to constructing clean air legislation. In particular, the Bush proposal calls for using alternative fuels as an important component to reducing urban ozone and carbon monoxide. This paper summarizes the Bush proposal, looks briefly at other options to reduce urban air pollution, and empirically evaluates the cost effectiveness of alternative fuels as an air pollution control strategy. The paper finds that the cost per ton of emissions reduced–the measure of cost effectiveness–varies dramatically as the price of gasoline vis a vis the price of the alternative fuel changes. For this reason, the authors believe that new clean air legislation should allow for great flexibility so as to allow states to incorporate alternative fuels when they are cost effective. If oil prices turn out to be lower than expected, then forcing urban centers to adopt relatively more expensive alternative fuels would impose high costs.     

RECKONING INTER-GROUP POVERTY DIFFERENTIALS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF AGGREGATE POVERTY

Abstract.  It is plausible that the extent of measured aggregate poverty should depend upon the distribution of poverty across a population's subgroups. The aggregate measure of poverty would then lend itself to 'penal adjustment' to reflect the extent of inter-group disparity in the distribution of poverty. In the present paper, this approach to poverty measurement is examined by advancing a diagrammatic aid to analysis called the group poverty profile. The latter is a virtual transplantation, to the present context, of the notion of a deprivation profile that has been explored and analysed by Shorrocks (1996 ) in a different context.     

"你合作,我也合作"-森的确保规则在中国公社内部合作行为的应用

在社会交往中,个人的行为可能会被各种各样的承诺所限制.与标准的囚徒困境博弈中完全自私自利的参与者的行为相反,这些承诺有时会使人们暂时放弃对个人利益无休止的追逐.承诺形形色色,多种多样.在一个需要两个参与者进行合作的场合,当一个参与者确保自己会采取合作时,另一个参与者也会答应采取同样行动(SEN,1969,1974).当合作需要在超过两个参与者之间(N>2)进行时,一个参与者会答应合作只要另外一个,另外两个……或所有其他(N-1)个参与者答应合作.最终,一参与者可能会答应单方的无条件合作.该文旨在分析中国人民公社(1958-1978)内部集体成员承诺的不同形式.由于成员承诺结构的多样性,可能会产生不同的合作结果并且实际上也观察到了这些结果.这种对公社内部合作问题性质的解释与仅仅只承认个人利益是集体成员选择努力水平的惟一决定因素的另外两个模型(LIN,1990,1993;DONG和DOW,1993)形成了鲜明的对照.     

中国粮食安全的测度:一个指标体系

我国粮食安全程度在波动中提高。威胁我国粮食安全的不是单一领域的因素,生产、消费、流通、贸易等领域都可能引起粮食安全风险。所以,粮食政策不应是单一性质的,而应是一揽子、带有组合性质的政策。     

ASPECTS OF POVERTY IN MALAYSIA

This paper is concerned with the definition and measurement of poverty in Malaysia. A poverty line is estimated after considering both the absolute and relative approaches to the definition. Various indices of poverty are discussed, ranging from the simple "incidence of poverty" measure to others which take account of the "poverty gap". There is a derivation of a new index due to Sen, and alternative normalizations are suggested for it. Estimates of all these measures are presented for Malaysia. Finally, the simple "incidence of poverty" measure, which is decomposable, is adopted to construct a "profile" of the poor in Malaysia.