Fall In Poverty Research Articles

Consumption and Income Poverty in Rural China: 1995–2018

AbstractThis paper studies consumption and income poverty in rural China during the period from 1995 to 2018 using Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) data. It finds that the wellbeing of Chinese rural residents has improved significantly during this period as part of China's rapid industrialization and economic growth. The incidence of poverty has fallen substantially, either measured in terms of income or consumption. However, consumption poverty is not consistent with income poverty. It was the substantial growth of consumption or income that brought about the sharp fall in poverty, whereas the redistribution of consumption or income in particular during the period from 2002 to 2018 was unfavorable for poverty reduction. A large number of rural household workers moved away from household farming to participate in local or urban non‐farming activities, resulting in a fall in poverty in the households that engaged purely in farming, and economic growth led to a sharp fall in poverty within different rural household groups.

A dynamical assessment of multidimensional poverty in agro-climatic zones: an evidence from Punjab Pakistan.

The dynamics of poverty have become a controversial issue and one of the most common socio-economic problems in global economies, especially in developing economies as a whole. As per the importance of precise dilemma, the current study examines single as well as multidimensional poverty in the agro-climatic zones of Punjab, Pakistan, for the last 8 years from 2011-2012 to 2018-2019 by utilizing four available latest HIES (Household Integrated Economic Survey) datasets taken from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). This study uses a couple of indexing methods, namely FGT (1984) and Alkire and Foster (2007). Temporal analysis of the first measure of poverty demonstrates that with a shorter (longer) time gap, poverty presents a hybrid (declining) trend in the uni-dimensional spectrum in the province of Punjab and its agro-climatic zones. While population decomposition for uni-dimensional poverty validates that residences of cotton-wheat Punjab and lower intensity Punjab is the major contributor to overall province poverty. Thus, to diminish poverty in a single-dimensional context, it is the need of time to take emergency steps like uplift economic growth, lessen income inequalities, and create job opportunities by the government for the improvement of the living standard of the residences of the overall province with special consideration on both these most affected zones. Similarly, calculations of the second measure of multidimensional poverty reveal that poverty also presents a hybrid (declining) trend with a shorter (longer) span of time in the overall province and all agro-climatic zones with the exception of the wheat-rice zone. However, dimensional decomposition for multidimensional poverty index demarcates that education and health are the major contributors to MDP, and declining the households' deprivation in both these dimensions is relatively helpful to nippy fall in poverty in the study area.

Role of financial inclusion in poverty alleviation in Odisha

Objectives: This study dwells on the role of financial inclusion in poverty alleviation. The alleviation of poverty is implemented by combining direct tools and indirect tools. Traditional solutions have not been as effective and sufficient to tackle poverty. Indirect tools include improving access to credit, promoting savings to the poor. Methods/Statistical analysis: We use district level branch banking and development indicators data for 30 districts of Odisha during the discrete period 1992 to 2011, since official poverty data for district levels are not released. Findings: When controlled for PDDP, number of bank branches plays a significant role to reduce poverty. We find that an increase of Rs. 10,000/- in PDDP can cause a fall in poverty by 4%, an increase of 10% in Rice Yield can cause fall in poverty by 1.5%, whereas, an additional 100 number of bank branches can reduce poverty by 4.7% in the districts. Application/Improvements: The results of this analysis could go further to achieve the millennium development goals in few years. Novelty: We find the relative ranking of the coefficients of real sector and finance sector variables, that when controlled for other variables, e.g., Rice Yield, No. of Branches and PDDP to negatively impact poverty rates. Keywords: inclusion; poverty alleviation; banking; NDDP; branches

Explorando los cambios de la pobreza en Argentina: 2003-2015

Este trabajo explora los cambios en la pobreza de ingresos en Argentina durante el período 2003-2015 utilizando diversas metodologías de descomposición. Los resultados sugieren que la mejora generalizada en el mercado laboral luego de la crisis fue el principal factor detrás de la fuerte caída de la pobreza en el período 2003-2007. En contraste, la reducción de la pobreza durante la etapa 2007-2011 está asociada al papel más activo que tomó la política social. Finalmente, durante el período 2011-2015 ningún factor contribuyó significativamente a la reducción de la pobreza.

A Decade of Poverty Reduction in Kazakhstan 2001–2009: Growth and/or Redistribution?

AbstractThis paper examines the factors explaining the sustained fall in poverty experienced in Kazakhstan in the period 2001–2009. It examines the contribution of economic growth and redistribution policies to poverty reduction through an analysis of household survey data. It finds that growth has been strongly pro‐poor. Growth was the main driver behind the fall in poverty in the first half of the decade, but redistribution gained in importance in the latter part of the decade. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Do inward looking trade policies affect poverty and income inequality? Evidence from Indonesia's recent wave of rising protectionism

Unlike previous studies which often focus on trade liberalisation, this paper examines the impact of protectionism in the form of import tariffs and mineral export taxes on rural and urban poverty and income inequality for the first time. Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model on Indonesia, mineral export taxes were found to adversely affect urban and rural poverty but income inequality hardly changed as the decline in income in the higher income group is not significantly different to the decline in low income groups. However, if smelters for mineral ore are developed, then there is not only a fall in poverty, more so for the rural than urban, but there is some decline in income inequality. On the other hand, although the current imposed import tariffs do not affect poverty or income inequality, any further increases from the current low average MFN applied rates, will see a rise in rural and urban poverty and income inequality. By and large, any small improvements in the trade balance brought upon by the mineral tax and import tariffs are more than outweighed by the substantial decline in real household consumption expenditure due to falls in employment and wages, thereby leading to a fall in GDP growth.

Public Transfers and the Poverty of Children and the Elderly in Uruguay

AbstractIn Uruguay, public direct transfers reduce poverty for society as a whole. Poverty affects mostly children, even after the recent period of fall in poverty. The aim of this article is to analyze whether the reduction in poverty benefits a particular age group over others or if it affects all groups equally. The methodological strategy consists in the estimation of the contribution of public direct transfers to the poverty exit rate and its decomposition in the coverage effect and the amount effect. The main conclusions are as follows: (i) households with children are the least likely to escape poverty through the direct transfer system; (ii) the reason is the relative low per capita amount of the transfer and not the lack of coverage; and (iii) the effectiveness of the amount is relatively low because poverty before transfers is more intense for households with children, and the transfer that they receive is lower than that for other types of households.

Socio-Economic Differentials in Impoverishment Effects of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure in China and India: Evidence from WHO SAGE.

Background and ObjectivesThe provision of affordable health care is generally considered a fundamental goal of a welfare state. In addition to its role in maintaining and improving the health status of individuals and households, it impacts the economic prosperity of a society through its positive effects on labor productivity. Given this context, this paper assesses socioeconomic-differentials in the impact of out-of-pocket-health-expenditure (OOPHE) on impoverishment in China and India, two of the fastest growing economies of the world.Data and MethodsThe paper uses data from the World Health Organisation’s Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (WHO SAGE), and Bivariate as well as Multivariate analyses for investigating the socioeconomic-differentials in the impact of out-of-pocket-health-expenditure (OOPHE) on impoverishment in China and India.Results and ConclusionsAnnually, about 7% and 8% of the population in China and India, respectively, fall in poverty due to OOPHE. Also, the percentage shortfall in income for the population from poverty line due to OOPHE is 2% in China and 1.3% in India. Further, findings from the multivariate analysis indicate that lower wealth status and inpatient as well as outpatient care increase the odds of falling below poverty line significantly (with the extent much higher in the case of in-patient care) due to OOPHE in both China and India. In addition, having at least an under-5 child in the household, living in rural areas and having a household head with no formal education increases the odds of falling below poverty line significantly (compared to a head with college level education) due to OOPHE in China; whereas having at least an under-5 child, not having health insurance and residing in rural areas increases the odds of becoming poor significantly due to OOPHE in India.

Poverty Reduction and Pattern of Chronic Childhood Under-Nutrition in India: How Far Does the Link Exist?

In spite of an established link between poverty and under-nutrition in India, fall in under-nutrition is sluggish with fall in poverty. This research paper aims to seek answer on the effect of poverty decline on child under-nutrition in India over a period of one and a half decades. After examining the extent of association between poverty reduction and reciprocal changes in child under-nutrition, the paper found that although there was a definite influence of poverty levels on child under-nutrition at the state-level, the strength of the impact was not very high. This possibly explains why improvements in nutritional status among children have failed to keep up pace with steady reduction in mass poverty across the states in the last couple of decades. The results also strongly reiterate the magnificent role of child’s healthcare utilization and higher public spending which can help to capitalize on the increase in economic capabilities at the household level, resulting from robust economic growth and alleviation of endemic poverty.

Poor and dissatisfied? Income poverty, poverty transitions and life satisfaction in Chile

Chile is an interesting country in which to study the relationship between poverty and subjective wellbeing, having experienced a remarkable fall in poverty over the past two decades. This paper explores how poverty status and transitions in and out of poverty contributed to life satisfaction in the late 2000s. Using new data for 2006 and 2009, we find that poor people were more dissatisfied with life than the non-poor and that income gains did not appreciably affect the satisfaction of the poor while they remained below the poverty line. People who were not poor in either period exhibited higher satisfaction than those who were poor in both periods, while those who escaped poverty between 2006 and 2009 exhibited higher satisfaction than those who remained poor. In addition, people who fell into poverty in 2009 were no more or no less satisfied with their lives than those who were poor in both periods. The evidence suggests poor people may not have adapted to their circumstances, in contrast to much literature exploring income dynamics and life satisfaction, and also that people–s recent experiences appear to affect their perceptions more than more distant ones.

A Decade of Poverty Reduction in Kazakhstan 2000-2009: Growth and/or Redistribution?

Abstract This paper examines the main factors behind the strong decline in poverty experienced in Kazakhstan. Specifically, it examines the contribution of growth and redistribution to household consumption and to poverty indicators in Kazakhstan for the period 2001-2009. The analysis relies on estimates of pro-poor growth indices using cross-sections of household data. It finds that growth has been strongly pro-poor. Growth was the main driver behind the fall in poverty in the first half of the decade, but redistribution becomes important in sustaining poverty reduction in the latter part of the decade. Redistribution was crucial to sustaining poverty reduction in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

PARETO HONOURING POVERTY REDUCTION

ABSTRACTPolicy reforms often pit the poor against the poor by triggering a fall in poverty for some but an increase in poverty for others. Aggregated national measures gloss over these fine patterns and pronounce ‘a reduction in poverty’– is such aggregation across poor individuals ethically permissible? Addressing this type of aggregation is a hard issue. This paper has made an attempt in that direction by outlining an axiomatically grounded aggregate measure of such gains or losses, duly giving more importance to the losses to a poor compared to the gains of another poor.

Does Trade Liberalisation Lead to Poverty Alleviation? A CGE Microsimulation Approach for Zimbabwe

A CGE microsimulation model is used to study the poverty impacts of trade liberalization in Zimbabwe. A sample of 14006 households from a 1995 household survey is individually modeled in a CGE framework. The experiment performed is a 50 percent reduction in all import tariffs. The sectors with the highest initial tariffs are the non-export agriculture sectors and the most export-intensive sectors are found in agriculture and in mining. The halving of tariffs favors export-oriented sectors, mainly in agriculture, whereas industrial sectors are hardest hit by the increased import competition. As agriculture is intensive in unskilled labor and industry is intensive in skilled labor, unskilled wages rise relative to skilled wages. The consumer prices fall and this, together with increased unskilled wages, leads to a fall in poverty. The fall in the price of manufactured food, which is consumed mainly in urban areas, coupled with the large number of unskilled workers in these urban areas, explains why poverty falls more here than in rural Zimbabwe.

Does Trade Liberalisation Lead to Poverty Alleviation? A CGE Microsimulation Approach for Zimbabwe

A CGE microsimulation model is used to study the poverty impacts of trade liberalization in Zimbabwe. A sample of 14006 households from a 1995 household survey is individually modeled in a CGE framework. The experiment performed is a 50 percent reduction in all import tariffs. The sectors with the highest initial tariffs are the non-export agriculture sectors and the most export-intensive sectors are found in agriculture and in mining. The halving of tariffs favors export-oriented sectors, mainly in agriculture, whereas industrial sectors are hardest hit by the increased import competition. As agriculture is intensive in unskilled labor and industry is intensive in skilled labor, unskilled wages rise relative to skilled wages. The consumer prices fall and this, together with increased unskilled wages, leads to a fall in poverty. The fall in the price of manufactured food, which is consumed mainly in urban areas, coupled with the large number of unskilled workers in these urban areas, explains why poverty falls more here than in rural Zimbabwe.

Welfare in Vietnam during the 1990s: Poverty, inequality and poverty dynamics

Vietnam’s economy was transformed during the 1990s through a series of economic, social and political reforms, resulting in an average growth rate over the decade in excess of 6 per cent per annum, accompanied by a dramatic fall in the incidence of consumption per capita poverty. This paper examines changes in poverty and poverty dynamics over the 1990s using a nationally representative panel of households surveyed in 1992–93 and 1997–98. We analyse how robust the reduction in poverty is to the methods used to measure poverty. We find that regardless of where the poverty line is drawn, consumption per capita poverty fell between the surveys. We also examine changes in the distribution of living standards over time, finding that the fall in poverty was accompanied by a rise in inequality, with some sub-groups of the population failing to share equally in the growth of the country. Finally, we examine rural poverty dynamics, presenting transition matrices of movements in and out of poverty over time and estimating a model of consumption growth. We find that regional differences are important, as are access to key institutions and infrastructure, and education. We also find that shifts in employment and production patterns, especially of rice, which we argue to be induced by the economic reform process, are strongly related to changes in living standards.

Intersectoral Transfer, Growth, and Inequality in Rural Ecuador

In this paper we study intersectoral transfer and its impact on the distribution of income in Ecuador. We find that income shares between farm and nonfarm activities are roughly equal, on average, although the rich in rural areas typically receive a greater share of income from nonfarm sources. Thus decomposing inequality by income source reveals that a rise in nonfarm incomes increases inequality. Drawing on a new method to estimate local-level distributional outcomes, growth of the high-productivity nonfarm sector is observed to have a strong and positive association with average consumption and inequality. Growth of the low-productivity nonfarm sector is associated with little change in either average income or income inequality. Irrespective of subsector, growth of the nonfarm sector is associated with a substantial fall in poverty.

Poverty among small farmers under Frei and Pinochet, 1968–1986

This paper draws on the results of a nation-wide panel study of small farm households interviewed in 1968 and 1986 to complement accounts of Chile's economic performance under the governments of President Frei (1964–1970) and General Pinochet (1973–1989). It is shown that in contrast to macroeconomic trends of increased inequality and impoverishment after 1973, the incidence of poverty in the sample declined slightly but significantly over the period. The result is robust both to the choice of poverty index and poverty line. It is all the more striking because the sample represented the poorest group in Chile during the 1960s. Nevertheless, the incidence of poverty in the sample remained extremely high. In 1967–1968, more than three-quarters of households could not meet their basic needs, while in 1985–1986 this proportion reached nearly two thirds. The fall in poverty may be attributed to a combination of increased coverage of the rural areas by targeted welfare programmes and the effects of the life cycle in increasing the proportion of panel household members eligible for, and dependent on public transfers between 1968 and 1986.

Poverty Among Small Farmers Under Frei and Pinochet, 1968–1986

Abstract — This paper draws on the results of a nation‐wide panel study of small farm households interviewed in 1968 and 1986 to complement accounts of Chile's economic performance under the governments of President Frei (1964–1970) and General Pinochet (1973–1989). It is shown that in contrast to macroeconomic trends of increased inequality and impoverishment after 1973, the incidence of poverty in the sample declined slightly but significantly over the period. The result is robust both to the choice of poverty index and poverty line. It is all the more striking because the sample represented the poorest group in Chile during the 1960s. Nevertheless, the incidence of poverty in the sample remained extremely high. In 1967–1968, more than three‐quarters of households could not meet their basic needs, while in 1985–1986 this proportion reached nearly two thirds. The fall in poverty may be attributed to a combination of increased coverage of the rural areas by targeted welfare programmes and the effects of the life cycle in increasing the proportion of panel household members eligible for, and dependent on public transfers between 1968 and 1986.

Public Policy, Health Care and Older Women

For the first time in history, long life has become a problem. The most serious problem facing the older generation is the availability and affordability of health care. While the life expectancy of both men and women cbntinues to increase, the older population of the U.S. is becoming increasingly feminine. In the last two decades there has been a dramatic fall in poverty among the aged, yet for many elderly persons and especially older women, Social Security benefits barely keep them above the poverty level. Access to medical care has improved with Medicaid and Medicare, but not to the extent the aging population had anticipated. Proposals for universal health care have been put forth by politicians, legislators and professional organizations, some of which acknowledge the unique health problems of aging women while others are discriminatory to the aged in general and women in particular. Many believe women must assert themselves if their health care needs are to be adequately and fairly addressed. To this end, more women than ever are becoming involved in the political process, running for and being elected to local, state and national offices. It is anticipated that these women will be sensitive to the health care needs of older women and put forth efforts to develop and implement policies which address these needs.