Determinants of Poverty: Is Age Non-Linearly Related with Poverty? Evidence from Sri Lanka

Abstract

The current study aims to recognize the nature of the relationship between age and poverty in the context of Sri Lanka while examining the determinants of income and multidimensional poverty. The study uses Household Income & Expenditure Survey (HIES) (2016) data from Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka and employed Probit regression analysis to accomplish the objectives of the study. The results stress that there is a non-linear relationship between the age of head of household and probabilities of being income and multidimensional poverty in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the study determines that the probabilities of being income poor and multidimensionally poor decrease with age till 69.23 years and 68.18 years respectively and increase after that. Moreover, other households factors such as size of household, education, ethnicity, employment status, marital status, sector of living, disability nature of the head of household, having agricultural lands and receiving remittances are also recognized as crucial drivers of both income and multidimensional poverty in Sri Lanka. The study strongly recommends implementing appropriate policies and safety net programs which focus on the households which are headed by elderly people. Similarly, level of education, access to agricultural land and access to better employment opportunities should also be enhanced to ensure poverty-free society.