Multidimensional Poverty and Material Deprivation with Discrete Data

We propose a characterization of a popular index of multidimensional poverty which, as a special case, generates a measure of material deprivation. This index is the weighted sum of the functioning failures. The important feature of the variables that may be relevant for poverty assessments is that they are discrete in nature. Thus, poverty measures based on continuous variables are not suitable in this setting and the assumption of a discrete domain is mandatory. We apply the measure to European Union member states where the concept of material deprivation was initiated and illustrate how its recommendations differ from those obtained from poverty measures based exclusively on income considerations.     

中国多维贫困的动态测算、结构分解与精准扶贫

贫困的多维福利剥夺程度高低和持续时间长短是近年来理论界关注的焦点,也是政府制定精准扶贫政策的重要理论依据.文章综合Alkire和Foster(2011)提出的多维贫困测算方法和Foster(2009)提出的长期贫困测算方法,构建了长期多维贫困指数和暂时多维贫困指数,实证分析了中国的贫困状况,并进行了城乡分解、指标分解和区域分解.结果发现:第一,样本家庭在多维视角下的长期贫困比例要高于暂时贫困,这与单一地从收入角度来分析长期贫困和暂时贫困的结论恰好相反;第二,对于所有类型的贫困而言,教育年限、医疗保险和健康的贡献度都排在前三位,但健康对于长期贫困人口的贡献度要明显高于暂时贫困;第三,总体看来,农村的多维贫困程度不仅高于城市,而且很多指标的贫困持续时间也要高于城市;第四,从四大区域看,经济发展水平较低的中西部地区,长期多维贫困程度要高于东部和东北部地区.     

A Multidimensional Poverty Index for Latin America

This paper proposes a new Multidimensional Poverty Index for Latin America. The index combines monetary and non‐monetary indicators, updates deprivation cut‐offs for certain traditional unsatisfied basic needs indicators and includes some new indicators, aiming to maximize regional comparability within the data constraints. The index is estimated for 17 countries of the region at two points in time—one around 2005 and the other around 2012. Overall, we estimate about 28 percent of people are multidimensionally poor in 2012 in the region. We find statistically significant reductions of poverty in most countries, both in terms of incidence and intensity over the period under analysis. However, important disparities between rural and urban areas remain. Statistical scrutiny of the index suggests that it captures the state of poverty relatively well while maintaining a certain parsimony and being highly robust to changes in weights, indicators, and poverty cut‐off.     

Profiling the Fuzzy Latent Structure of Multidimensional Poverty: Toward Valuable Insights for Poverty Policymakers

Abstract

Several multidimensional poverty indices have been proposed, and have been extensively studied in the literature. On the other hand, the need for aggregation of poverty indicators into one multidimensional index has been questioned. It has been argued even so that this aggregation can be misleading for political targeting strategies. Subsequently, some researchers have advocated that the use of the latent class analysis would address these issues. However, this setting does not allow to take into account the fuzzy nature of the latent poverty concept. The contribution here is to use the Grade-of-Membership (GoM) model to profile the fuzzy latent structure of multidimensional poverty, for a more realistic handling of this phenomenon. The application of the GoM methodology to multivariate poverty data for the Tunisian case reveals four most prevalent multidimensional poverty profiles. The results emphasize the role played by contextual effects. Indeed, the rural cluster is suffering more intense deprivation and groups in the central and coastal regions have a more comfortable status in comparison with the group of households residing in inland regions. A thorough analysis of these patterns is put forward in this research, giving valuable insights to policy makers.     

Differentiating Between Dimensionality and Duration in Multidimensional Measures of Poverty: Methodology with an Application to China

We develop a multidimensional poverty measure that is sensitive to the within‐individual distribution of deprivations across dimensions and time. Our measure combines features from a static multidimensional measure (Alkire and Foster, 2011a ) and a time‐dependent unidimensional measure (Foster, 2009 ). The proposed measure separately identifies—and can therefore be decomposed according to—the proportion of the poverty score attributable to: (i) the concentration of deprivations within periods; (ii) the concentration of deprivations within dimensions. In doing so it allows for a poverty ranking that is robust to assumptions about the trade‐off between the two components. Previous measures have not allowed for the features proposed here due to the inability to calculate the exact contribution of each dimension to overall poverty. We overcome this by adapting to our measure the Shapley decomposition proposed in Shorrocks ( 2013 ) (based on Shapley, 1953 ). The measure is applied to data from China, 2000‐2011.     

四省藏区多维贫困空间分异及基层能力建设

四省藏区作为我国深度贫困地区的重要组成部分是精准扶贫精准脱贫中后程的重点和难点。基于2014年采集的“十二五”期间全国“整村推进”项目村基础数据,借鉴A-F多维贫困测度方法,对四省藏区村域多维贫困状况进行测度分解,并基于拓展的能力视角探讨了村级组织能力禀赋对四省藏区村域多维贫困状况的差异化缓解作用。结果发现:除经济贫困之外,四省藏区还遭受基础教育和生产生活条件等维度的多维贫困,且存在空间异质性,云南和青海藏区是四省藏区中多维贫困问题最严重的区域;生活水平条件和村域发展资本维度对四省藏区的多维贫困指数贡献率最高;基层组织能力禀赋会显著影响四省藏区村域的多维贫困状况、缩小地区差距,在深度贫困地区更加显著。根据研究结论,从覆盖基础教育设施、改善生产生活条件、提高基层组织能力建设三方面为深度贫困地区脱贫攻坚提供政策参考。     

Mismatch between Material Deprivation and Income Poverty: The Case of Turkey

By employing cross-sectional data obtained from Survey of Income and Living Conditions for the years from 2007 to 2011, we analyze the identification problem of the poor by using both monetary and non-monetary measures. We classify the poor into the following categories: (i) poor in monetary and nonmonetary measures, (ii) poor in monetary measure only, (iii) poor in non-monetary measure only, and (iv) non-poor in both categories. We examine the determinants of each category by utilizing the probit model and find that the share of workers in adults — or the share of informal or agricultural workers — creates some disparities between poverty at a country and regional level.     

中国、巴西：城市反贫困的比较及其启示

中国、巴西都是发展中国家,贫困问题尤其是城市贫困问题在一定程度上具有相似性。从巴西反贫困经验看,中国在城市反贫困问题上应缩小收入分配差距,扩大中等阶层收入,保护农村流动人口合法权益,给予城市农村流动人口与城市居民平等待遇并建立健全社会保障体系。     

Poverty and informal economy participation

This paper uses a household survey of the Romanian informal economy to analyse the effects of poverty on informal economy participation. We begin by developing a simple theoretical model, which shows that the participation is driven by low income and the gap between desired and actual income level. We then estimate the determinants of households’ participation in the informal economy. Empirical findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction. In addition, a positive association between husbands and wives working in the informal economy implies the deep poverty faced by a family whose head participates in the informal economy.     

Poverty decompositions with counterfactual income and inequality dynamics

Traditional poverty accounting decomposes changes in a country's poverty headcount ratio into changes in income and inequality. We argue that this approach is unsatisfactory from the perspective of policy analysis because it compares a country in two points of time without taking the country's initial situation, and hence its potential for poverty reduction, into account. We thus suggest comparing traditional poverty decompositions with a counterfactual situation. This counterfactual indicates what a country starting from its initial situation could be expected to achieve in terms of income, inequality, and, hence, poverty developments. We construct those counterfactuals by modeling income and inequality trends characterized by convergence and a “Kuznets” relationship between inequality and development. Parameters in those relationships are estimated using PovcalNet survey data from 144 countries and we construct our counterfactual poverty predictions for 71 developing countries. While there is overall a tight relationship between actual developments and counterfactuals, we identify several cases, where both deviate from each other and discuss the policy implications. We also check for commonalities in differently performing countries and find that those who fell particularly short of expectations often underwent political transition and state fragility.     

中国农村长期贫困程度、特征与影响因素

基于2002年的中国家庭收入项目（CHIP）调查数据,考察了中国农村的长期贫困与暂时性贫困。研究发现：中国农村更多呈现出暂时性消费贫困的特征,并且贫困家庭脱贫后进入高收入阶层的机会较小;离贫困线越远,其脱贫能力越低,离贫困线越近,其返贫的比例越高。远离区域经济中心、家庭负担较重、小孩老人较多的家庭容易陷入长期贫困。村支书的年轻化对于中下层贫困阶层摆脱长期贫困具有重要意义。社会政治资本、劳动力素质和居住条件是影响中等贫困家庭脱离长期贫困的重要因素。     

Poverty, Income Distribution and Policy Making

This paper deals with the key distributional issues arising from the regulation of the environment and the management of natural resources. The paper is divided into a section dealing with poverty and a section dealing with broader income distribution effects. Although there is much discussion of the linkages of poverty to environmental degradation, empirical studies establishing these linkages are few. The relationship is critically dependent on the institutional structures in the countries concerned and how they respond to changing environmental pressures. On the broader distributional impacts, the papers focusses on the analysis of ganiers and losers from environmental regulations. The analysis is complex because the direct incidence is not the same as the final incidence. Much of the work has looked only at the former. In addition, the political economy of regulation needs to pay greater attention to impacts on key and vulnerable groups; more so than can be done by looking at broad income bands.     

The probability of multidimensional poverty: A new approach and an empirical application to EU-SILC data

This paper proposes a novel method to analyze multidimensional poverty by using a large set of feasible weights to summarize the information about the poor, which enables remaining agnostic about the relative importance given to different poverty dimensions. This method allows for the calculation of the individual probability of being poor in a multidimensional perspective. The distribution of individual probabilities can then be combined with Generalized Lorenz dominance techniques to derive unanimous consent for a wide class of social welfare functions with a minimum load of value judgments. The innovations proposed here allow to move from a dual definition of poverty, where poor and non-poor individuals are classified in a mutually exclusive context, to a continuous measure of deprivation capturing both the extensive and intensive margin of multidimensional poverty. The empirical application of the method consists of measuring multidimensional poverty in ten selected countries using four waves of EU-SILC data (2008–2014).     

农村劳动力流动与缓解贫困——基于甘肃省贫困地区的实证分析

农村劳动力流动对农户家庭收入、消费、农业生产投入和农村生态产生了积极影响,改善了劳动者本人的人力资本水平,提高了其自我发展的能力。当前教育和医疗成为致贫的主要原因,这对建立适应农村的教育体制和农村医疗保障制度提出了迫切要求。     

Gross Capital Formation,Institutions and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

The conventional wisdom is that rapid economic growth is driven by investment. Paying particular attention to the state of gross fixed capital formation (gfcf), poverty and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper investigates the effect of gfcf on poverty and explores whether the gfcf and poverty relationship can be strengthened by institutions. Using the panel data-set of 41 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1981–2010 and dynamic two-step system generalised method of moment estimator, it is found that gfcf reduces poverty and institutions reinforce the gfcf and poverty link.     

中国老年家庭的经济脆弱性与贫困

利用中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)2006和2009年的面板数据测度了老年家庭的经济脆弱性,检验各因素对经济脆弱性和贫困的相对影响力。老年家庭的经济脆弱性高于贫困;户主特征和家庭变量不同程度地影响到了经济脆弱性及贫困,代际间向上流动的私人转移支付对老年家庭的经济脆弱性和贫困没有作用;超过24%的非贫困家庭是经济脆弱性家庭;期望效用的脆弱性(VEU)方法表明,不平等虽然减少了脆弱性,但其影响经济脆弱性的力量最小,不可解释的风险是最重要的因素,异质性风险和协同性风险的力量居中。     

Poverty,inequality and ethnic minorities in Vietnam

The present study examines how and why ethnic minorities are poorer than ethnic majorities in Vietnam using the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey data for 2002 and 2004. First, the analysis confirms that households belonging to the ethnic minority groups are not only poorer but also more vulnerable to various shocks than those in the ethnic majority groups, namely the Kinh and the Chinese. Second, household composition (e.g., dependency burden), education, land holding and location are important determinants of expenditure and poverty, whilst there is some diversity among different ethnic groups. Finally, the decomposition analyses reveal that the ethnic minorities are poorer not necessarily because they have more disadvantaged household characteristics (e.g., educational attainment or location), but, more importantly, because the returns to the characteristics are much lower for ethnic minorities than for the majorities. Government policies to reduce structural differences between ethnic majorities and minorities are imperative to address the disparities in returns to endowments between them.     

Freedom of Choice and Poverty Alleviation

The Capability Approach (henceforth CA) views poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon that is not only characterised by lows levels of achievement in the various dimensions but also by a restricted opportunity to choose among different ways of life. The CA thus puts a lot of emphasis on (limited) freedom of choice as a crucial aspect of poverty. If poverty is seen in this way there are two ways to improve the situation of the poor: by broadening the set of opportunities open to them or by strengthening their ability to choose. The paper concentrates on the latter. Although the CA discusses several possibilities for strengthening the ability to choose it does not explicitly consider the role of enhancing the capability of choosing as a means of poverty alleviation. The paper summarizes which circumstances are seen in the CA as suitable for strengthening freedom of choice. Namely, the paper discusses the market as an institution that trains the ability to choose, democracy as a political institution that is based on freedom of choice and participatory methods as an attempt to build explicitly on freedom of choice of the participants. Two shortcomings in the theoretical conceptualization of freedom of choice in the CA are identified by discussing these institutions and circumstances: first, the interplay between social structures and individual agency is not modelled in much detail within the CA. Second, the CA does not provide an explicitly temporal model of agency. The paper takes a closer look at these shortcomings from a sociological perspective since the questions they raise are core questions of sociology. The problems are intertwined. In order to tackle the problem of social embedding in the CA one needs to introduce time and processes as well. Sociological approaches show how social structures evolve from the interaction of individuals. The paper gives an example of how sociological concepts of this interaction can be used for drawing a model of social work for strengthening the agency of the poor. The paper proceeds as follows: first the view of poverty as capability deprivation is presented. The second section gives an overview of the areas in which the CA discusses the strengthening of individual choice: the market, democracy and participatory projects. The third section elaborates on the shortcomings of the CA identified in the preceding section from a sociological perspective and introduces a concept of social work developed in a similar theoretical context. The conclusion summarizes the lessons and outlines further lines of research.     

Poverty and biodiversity: Measuring the overlap of human poverty and the biodiversity hotspots

In an effort to prioritize conservation efforts, scientists have developed the concept of biodiversity hotspots. Since most hotspots occur in countries where poverty is widespread, the success of conservation efforts depends upon the recognition that poverty can be a significant constraint on conservation, and at the same time conservation is an important component to the alleviation of long-term poverty. In this paper we present five key socio-economic poverty indicators (access to water, undernourishment, potential population pressure, number living below poverty line and debt service) and integrate them with an ecologically based hotspots analysis in order to illustrate magnitude of the overlap between biological conservation and poverty. The analysis here suggests that the overlap between severe, multifaceted poverty and key areas of global biodiversity is great and needs to be acknowledged. Understanding the magnitude of overlap and interactions among poverty, conservation and macroeconomic processes is crucial for identifying illusive, yet possible, win-win solutions.     

重庆市三峡库区贫困现状与反贫困的对策研究

本文在揭示重庆市三峡库区贫困现状和原因的基础上,指出库区扶贫开发的对象是针对没有解决温饱和没有稳定收入的低收入人群,基本目标是基本解决贫困人口的温饱问题,进一步改善贫困地区生产生活条件,提高贫困人口的生活质量和综合素质;长期目标是满足贫困人口的基本需求,不仅包括温饱问题,而且包括基本的住宿、医疗、清洁饮用水、基本教育、交通等生活质量和发展能力需求。最后,提出了反贫困的对策措施和政策建议。