Dynamics and Determinants of Poverty in Nigeria: Evidence from a Panel Survey

Abstract

This paper investigates the dynamics of poverty in Nigeria across two periods—post—planting and post—harvest seasons. Two poverty levels were used in analyzing the household survey data. The estimated results show that about 82.11 % of the population was categorized as living under US$2/day in the post—planting season and 83.32 % in the post—harvest season. However, 61.93 % of the population was said to be extremely poor during the post—planting season and 62.02 % in the post—harvest season. In actual sense, an increase of 0.09 % in poverty levels was noticed after the first visit for the extremely poor and an increase of 1.21 % in poverty levels was seen after the second visit for the merely poor. The study used the first field visit to represent the post—planting season and the second visit for the post—harvest season. The study also validates low education levels, religion, poor employment status, and marital status as the major determinants of poverty in Nigeria.