Households In Urban Areas Research Articles

Ethnicity and the distribution of welfare: Evidence from southern Kyrgyzstan

Economic disparity between ethnic groups is sometimes supposed to be the main driver of ethnic conflict. Understanding the extent and the sources of such disparity is then important to help formulate policies that aim at avoiding further conflict. This paper analyzes economic disparity between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan. These groups were involved in violent clashes in the recent past. Using household survey data from 2005, we show that, in contrast to the public perception, Kyrgyz households have slightly higher expenditure than Uzbek households in urban areas and about the same level in rural areas. The gap in urban areas is mostly due to smaller households and higher education among the Kyrgyz. We also find that Uzbek households are better off than Kyrgyz households in terms of the value of housing property. We argue that the house value gap can be explained by the Uzbeks having larger houses, which are home to larger families and serve as a basis for running small businesses.

Rising Food Prices and Household Welfare in Ethiopia: Evidence from Micro Data

This paper analyzes welfare implications of rising commodity prices in Ethiopia based on household budget surveys. Our findings suggest that a rise in relative prices of such necessities as cereals would lead to a large deterioration in the welfare of households in urban areas. In rural areas generally land-rich households tend to benefit significantly from the recent surge in food prices, while the land-poor and typical farm households tend to experience negative growth. Thus, price shifts in favour of agriculture could aggravate poverty conditions in rural areas. Simulated Gini computed from simple demand systems indicate worsening income distribution in urban areas due to price shifts that would exacerbate the already dire poverty conditions. The paper also reported own and cross-price elasticities mainly for cereals to gain insight into magnitude of demand shifts due to income and price changes.

Food Insecure Household Coping Strategies: The Case of a Low Income Neighborhood in South Africa

Food security can be defined as a state in which all people in a household have at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. In the last decade household food insecurity in rural and urban areas has been associated with several negative health and nutrition outcomes. The questions which arise are thus: How do food insecure households in urban areas cope with food insecurity? To what extent do they limit food intake as a coping strategy? A quantitative research method was deployed and a stratified random sample of 300 was used to collect data in Bophelong, a low income neighborhood in South Africa. The Coping Strategies Index (CSI) and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) were used to measure the food security status of the households. The CSI Raw Score and HFIAS Score was then calculated and the correlation with different coping strategies determined. The study found that households did use coping strategies in order to mitigate shortages of food. Additionally, it revealed that as CSI scores/HFIAS scores increased, the reliance on consumption coping strategies by households increased. This indicates a high level of food insecurity. Spearman’s correlation indicates that food limiting strategies correlated significantly with the cumulative CSI scores and HFIAS scores of households. The study concluded that urbanization and the resultant effects of unemployment, poverty, and ultimately, food insecurity, remain a challenge to policymakers. There may be an urgent need for the development of a more comprehensive food security strategy, focusing on urban as well as rural areas in South Africa. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n13p100

The impact of the Greek crisis on the consumers’ behaviour: some initial evidences?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes on food consumption patterns of households, due to the ongoing economic crisis in Greece. Design/methodology/approach – A sample survey among a random sample of 932 households living in the region of Thessaly, central Greece, was carried out, with the consuming behaviour to be focused on 20 basic food products. An exploratory factor analysis, followed by a hierarchical classification of the households, was implemented. Findings – Six patterns of food consumption's behaviour have been detected, revealing that most of the households have modified their eating habits, by reducing the quantities consumed and/or looking for less expensive brands. Only 15 per cent of the households do not seem to be affected by the crisis and the austerity policy. The spatial dimension of the research signify that low-income households in urban areas, where the majority of the population lives, are deeply affected by the crisis, with these percentages to be even higher at semi-urban and rural areas. Originality/value – This is the first attempt of assessment of the impact of the economic crisis in Greece on food consumption pattern, verifying its significant negative impact on an inelastic need, such food consumption is.

Welfare and distributional impacts of price shocks in Malawi: a non-parametric approach

This analysis used measures of Compensating Variation and Net Benefit Ratio to assess the short-run effects of higher prices on different wealth groups in rural and urban areas of Malawi. Compensating Variation analysis indicated that in aggregate terms, both rural and urban households had suffered with the recent price increases, but urban areas were more severely impacted. Relatively better-off households in urban areas had much larger welfare losses than the poorest, while in rural areas there was not much difference across wealth groups. Losses in expenditure on food consumption (particularly dominated by cereals and grains) were higher in rural areas. In both areas, the poorest households carried the heaviest burden of the food price increases. The opposite result was found for non-food items, where negative effects were stronger among urban households and, in both areas, the relatively better-off carried a heavier burden. Accounting for substitution effects in consumption, with households adjusting away from more expensive items, resulted in a significant reduction in welfare losses and poverty incidence in urban, but not in rural areas. In each scenario, female-headed households experienced the most adverse impacts. Results were translated into tangible policy and programmatic recommendations, specifying alternative budget scenarios which could compensate the most adversely affected groups. Net Benefit Ratio Analysis, which brings in supply side considerations, found that, assuming “no wage effects”, doubling the price of food would reduce real income by about a third in urban areas, and by less that a fifth in rural areas, with the poorest in each area suffering the most. This is a reflection of the fact that there are relatively more households that produce and sell in rural areas than in urban areas. Assuming a wage response to price increases, we find that the adverse effects were reduced more strongly in urban areas, which is a reflection of a more active wage labor market in those areas, where wage adjustments help to minimize the negative effects of price shocks. This analysis suggested that policies should be oriented towards supporting household livelihoods by strengthening social protection interventions, including direct cash transfers and labor intensive public works programs, to effectively protect and compensate households for welfare losses that result from price shocks. In order to be able to capture general equilibrium and long-term effects of price shocks and adjustment to them, it is recommended that future research should combine partial equilibrium methods with a general equilibrium framework.

Economic crisis and food selection: the financial, social and spatial dimension

The aim of this paper is to examine the changes on food consumption patterns of Greek households, following the economic crisis in Greece and the austerity measures that have greatly reduced the households’ incomes. Six patterns of food consumption’s behaviour have been detected, revealing that most of the households have modified their eating habits, reducing the quantities consumed and/or looking for less expensive brands. Quite enlightening is the research being made on the spatial basis. The results of this approach signify that low income households in urban areas, where the majority of the population lives, are deeply affected by the crisis, with these percentages to be even higher at semi urban and rural areas. This is the first attempt of assessment of the impact of the economic crisis in Greece on food consumption patterns.

Life Cycle Energy Analysis (LCEA) of Cooking Fuel Sources Used in India Households

The purpose of this paper is to analyze various cooking fuel options commonly used in Indian households, namely, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG CO) derived from crude oil and (LPG NG) natural gas, kerosene, coal, electricity, firewood, charcoal, crop residues, dung cake and biogas. In this paper, we used life cycle energy analysis approach to determine the life cycle energy efficiency (LCEE) of cooking fuels. The daily heat energy requirement by the Indian households for cooking activities is about 2150 kcal. Amongst the analyzed fossil fuels, LPG derived from natural gas has the highest energy efficiency of 45% and coal with 14.7% is the least energy efficient fossil fuel option for household cooking. The life cycle energy efficiency of traditional biomass fuels is 11.9-7.5%, which is much lower than those of commercial cooking fuels like LPG and kerosene. The life cycle energy efficiency of charcoal is found to be 9% and is lower than that of firewood. The energy efficiency of biogas is found to be comparable to that of LPG and is potentially a sustainable cooking fuel option in Indian context. waste (12.3%) and dung cake (10.9%), a large number of households in urban areas depend on LPG (65%), kerosene (7.5%) and coal (2.9%) for cooking purposes (1). The cooking fuel consumption trend in urban areas of past few decades' show that firewood and coal were the principle energy carriers for cooking until mid 1970's but gradually kerosene substituted the coal and post liberalization, the consumption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has been steadily rising. The kerosene use has been on a constant decline since 1999 and the rate of decline is almost equal to the rate of increase in the LPG consumption. The consumption of firewood, which is largely used by the low income households has remained almost constant since 1991. The consumption of coal has been mostly limited to areas around coal mines and has remained fairly constant at about 3%. In rural areas, firewood and dung cake were the main energy carriers for cooking activities during mid 70's and continues to be the dominant cooking fuel resource till date. Although the accessibility of LPG has been increasing in rural areas since 1999, but the fuel transition observed is largely from kerosene to LPG. Both LPG and kerosene for the residential sector is disseminated through an aggressive subsidization policy of the Indian government. The fuel type and consumption pattern are also influenced by income levels of the households and various studies have shown the positive relationship between the increase in income to the fuel transition up the energy ladder, i.e. from biomass to kerosene to LPG and/or electricity, in terms of quality, user convenience and cost (2). The 'energy ladder hypothesis' is somewhat skewed, particularly in rural areas where high income households tend to use biomass fuels too along with commercial fuels because of its local availability and taste preferences of certain dishes like unleavened bread, rice dishes cooked in earthen pots etc (3). Rural households collect fuel from various sources such as animals, forestland or open land surrounding their villages and a considerable amount of time and manual labour is spent in gathering, collection, making, drying, stocking etc of biomass fuels (4-5). The direct consequences for the poor are that precious time is lost in collecting low quality and low efficient fuels, thereby reducing their ability to accumulate the financial resources they need to invest in strategies for improving their

Resource boom and inequality: Kazakhstan as a case study

Our research investigates the impact of a major resource boom on income inequality within Kazakhstan's regions using household-level data across the entire income distribution and within the top and bottom halves of the income distribution. In addition, we evaluate the inequality dynamics separately in urban and rural areas. The theoretical foundation shows that a resource boom will decrease income inequality through the labor market if the non-traded sector is relatively intensive in its use of unskilled labor. Government transfers financed by resource income can further reduce inequality. Our regression analysis indicates that resource booms lower inequality when we control for the effect of changing labor income, institutional quality, education levels, and public health care spending. In addition, quality of institutions is an important equalizing factor for the lower income households in urban areas, but not in rural areas. Public health programs decrease overall inequality in the rural areas; however, they do not affect the bottom half of the income distribution.

Is rapid urbanization in India happened at the cost of health of urban poor?

Aims: To examine the health and causes prevailing diseases among urban poor in India, the paper is emphasizing the environmental condition in slums and its effect on people living there vis a vis in swanky areas. Methods: The paper analyse data from 56961women & 38199 men living in 50236 household in urban areas in India from the National Family Health Survey-1, 2 & 3. Apart from their socio-demographic status, wealth index were considered to estimate impact on their health status. Incidences of diseases like diarrhoea, ARI among children and prevalence of TB among adults were examined for health status. Types of water supply, cooking fuel used and No. of rooms at house vis a vis household size (for crowding) were also analyzed through multivariate analysis. Results: The results show that people with lower wealth index are using firewood for cooking and not using piped water in urban areas. Incidence of water and air borne diseases are high at overcrowded households in urban dwellings. People do not have access to safe drinking water or flush toilet facilities and the situation did not improve over time. Affordability is low among urban poor which causes low treatment adherence. Conclusions: As the urbanization perceived as an indicator for development but planned cities may help to improve health of urban poor in future. Availability of safe drinking water and satiation along with knowledge on WASH may save lives of many poor living in slums in swanky cities.

Switching the lights off: The impact of energy tariff increases on households in the Kyrgyz Republic

This paper describes an analysis of the impact that higher energy tariffs would have on households in the Kyrgyz Republic using micro-data from the 2009 Kyrgyz Integrated Household Survey. This analysis was conducted to determine which households would be most affected by higher energy tariffs and to what extent mitigation measures, such as lifeline tariffs or direct cash transfers, might lessen the impact for poor and vulnerable households. The analysis focused on first-order effects and used benefit incidence analysis and static micro-simulation to estimate the expected costs and benefits of higher energy prices and the corresponding mitigation measures. The results suggest that both the type of energy and the level of connectedness matter. Increasing tariffs for thermal power used for central heating and hot water mainly affects richer households in urban areas. Reducing implicit electricity subsidies affects the entire population due to nearly complete country coverage with electricity connections. Both lifeline tariffs and direct cash transfers could mitigate the effect of higher electricity tariffs at lower costs than universal subsidies.

Household greywater use practices in Melbourne, Australia

Research on the potential of greywater reuse to reduce urban tap water demand has focused mainly on permanently installed greywater treatment or irrigation systems. These may be readily implemented in new housing developments, but experience in Australia shows their uptake by established households in urban areas is low. The majority of households employ simple and temporary methods for greywater collection and use, but their behaviour has not been well documented. We characterised the greywater use practices of over 1,000 Melbourne households during a 5-year period (2007 to 2011) which included 3 years of severe drought with stringent restrictions on outdoor tap water use. Greywater was most frequently collected from the laundry and bathroom, and generally used within 24 hours. Garden watering was the most common end use, and treatment of greywater to reduce microbial contamination was very rare. Volume estimates by householders suggest that on average around 10% of tap water used in the home was being collected for reuse. When drought conditions and water restrictions eased, over 40% of user households discontinued greywater use. Widespread adoption of permanent greywater collection, treatment and storage systems by households would be required to achieve a lasting effect on urban water consumption.

Enabling reforms: Analyzing the political economy of the charcoal sector in Tanzania

With about 95percent of all households in urban areas relying on charcoal to meet energy needs, charcoal is one of the most important energy sources in Tanzania. High population growth rates coupled with accelerated urban development and relative cost increases of alternative fuels indicate that the importance of charcoal is unlikely to decline in the near future. Systemic initiatives to render the sector more environmentally and economically sustainable are missing or have remained largely ineffective. A weak formal governance framework as well as regulatory overlaps and gaps are often identified as principal reasons. Nonetheless, the underlying political economy supporting and maintaining the status quo is only poorly understood and no attempt has so far been made for a formal analysis and documentation.Applying an established methodology, this article provides a unique analysis of the political economy of the charcoal sector in Tanzania. It documents social, political, and economic explanations that existed as anecdotal evidence only and explains why a reform dialogue needs to be sensitive. While the analysis focuses on Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, it shows that findings apply to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa facing similar challenges. It provides a comprehensive example for approaching charcoal sector reforms, requiring identification of the problems and an open dialogue within and among stakeholders, new policies and a subsequent strategic decision clearly stating overarching goals and specific objectives.

Identification of Decision Making for Food Under Economic Crisis: The Case of Greece

The aim of this paper is to examine the changes on food consumption patterns of Greek households, following the economic crisis in Greece and the austerity measures that have greatly reduced the households’ incomes. A sample survey among a random sample of 932 households living in the region of Thessaly was carried out while the consuming behaviour is focused on 20 basic food products. In order to identify the effects of economic crisis on consumers’ behaviour, an exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by a hierarchical classification of the households have been implemented. Six patterns of food consumption's behaviour have been detected, revealing that most of the households have modified their eating habits, reducing the quantities consumed and/or looking for less expensive brands. Only 15% of the households do not seem to be affected by the crisis and the austerity policy. Quite enlightening is the research being made on the spatial basis. The results of this approach signify that low income households in urban areas, where the majority of the population lives, are deeply affected by the crisis, with these percentages to be even higher at semi urban and rural areas. This is the first attempt of assessment of the impact of the economic crisis in Greece on food consumption patterns

한국과 미국 도시 월세가구의 가정 에너지 비용과 주거비 부담

The purpose of this study was to examine influence of home energy cost on housing cost burden of Korean and U.S. monthly renter households in urban areas and to explore influences of household and housing characteristics on their home energy cost burden. Microdata for this research was extracted from the 2011 Korean Household Budget Survey and 2009 American Housing Survey. Monthly renter households in urban areas were initially grouped based on household income, followed by a detailed analysis of housing and home energy cost. Findings are as follows: (1) The maximum ratio of home energy cost to household house hold income in Korea was 49% compared to 83% in the US; (2) Energy cost to income ratio were found to have significant influences on housing cost burden and lower income households' housing cost burden was found more vulnerable to their energy cost; (3) In general, the energy cost burden of low-income renter households in Korea tended to be influenced by household size, the number of household members staying at home during daytime hours and housing unit size. The energy cost burden of low-income renter households in the U.S. tended to be influenced by home structure type, size and age, the householder's age, race, educational attainment, the household size, number of wage earners per household, income, and the number of household members between 7 and 17 years of age.

Optimal Planning for Water Resources Allocation (Case study: Hableh Roud Basin, Iran)

The world is facing severe challenges in meeting the rapidly growing demand for water resources. In addition,irrigation water which is the largest use of water in most developing countries and arid and semi arid regions, will likelyhave to be diverted increasingly to meet the needs of the households in urban areas and industry sectors whilst remaining aprime engine of agricultural growth. A Linear Programming (LP) model has been developed to allocate the land and waterresources to different crop activities for maximizing the net return. Application of the model for the irrigation watermanagement revealed that in winter, 89.4% of available channel water was utilized, out of which 55.9% and 18.5% wereallocated for wheat and barley, respectively .The remaining 25.6% channel water was allocated for cotton andwatermelon. Since there were enough channel water supplies in this season, only 10.6% of available groundwater wasutilized. In the absence of constraint on conjunctive use, there would have been no groundwater exploitation, and 100% ofthe channel water, which is much cheaper than groundwater, could have been utilized, if required. During summer season,the entire quantities of water available in channel as well as groundwater resources were utilized. In this season, as therewas limited channel water supply, considerable part of the irrigation requirement was met from available groundwater.Based on the LP analysis, out of total available channel water, 43.2% was allocated to cotton cropping, which was mostprofitable as compared to all other crop activities, followed by 38.3%, 9.5% and 9% to crop activities includingwatermelon, barely and wheat, respectively. Out of total available groundwater, 65.8% was allocated to cotton whoseirrigation water need was high and the remaining 34.2% was shared by wheat, barley and watermelon cropping activities.The model predicts that in the case of changes in irrigation water supply, it will be economic to change the croppingpattern.

L'impact des aléas pluviométriques sur les disparités régionales de pauvreté au Sénégal

Résumé Dans cet article, nous tentons d’évaluer l’impact de chocs pluviométriques sur la pauvreté à l’échelle des différentes zones agro-écologiques du Sénégal à l’aide d’un modèle d’équilibre général calculable dynamique dans lequel nous intégrons un indice qui capte les fluctuations pluviométriques. Les résultats de nos simulations attestent que l’impact d’une mauvaise pluviométrie est davantage ressenti par les ruraux des zones agro-écologiques du bassin arachidier, de la zone sylvo-pastorale et de la Casamance, relativement plus dépendantes de la pluviométrie dans leurs activités de production. Compte tenu des liens inter-branches entre l’agriculture et le reste de l’économie, les urbains, en particulier ceux résidant hors de la capitale, sont également affectés. En revanche, lorsque surviennent des périodes d’excédents pluviométriques, l’incidence de la pauvreté baisse chez toutes les catégories de ménages. Classification JEL : Q1, O13, I3, C6

The Stability and Instability of Organic Expenditures in Denmark, Great Britain, and Italy

This article concerns demand for organic foods in 3 European countries: Denmark, Great Britain, and Italy. Based on extensive sets of household panel data we categorize households into 4 groups according to their levels of organic consumption. Importance of sociodemographics is estimated by applying multinomial logit models. In all 3 countries a high organic consumption is mainly found among the more well-situated households in urban areas. Although the relative size of the user groups is fairly stable over time, we find variation in the organic consumption of individual households.

Consumer demand for green stormwater management technology in an urban setting: The case of Chicago rain barrels

Hydrological disruption and water pollution from urbanization can be reduced if households in urban areas adopt decentralized storm water controls. We study a citywide municipal subsidized rain‐barrel program in the third biggest city in the United States, Chicago, to explore what factors influence whether households purchase this sort of green storm water management technology in an urban setting. Specifically, we regress census‐tract level data on the number of rain barrels adopted in different parts of the city on socioeconomic variables, data on local flood frequency, and features of the housing stock. We find that rain‐barrel purchases are not correlated with local levels of flooding, even though city residents were told by program managers that rain barrels could alleviate local flooding. Instead, rain barrels are heavily concentrated in places with high‐income attitudinally green populations. We do find more rain barrels were adopted in places close to rain‐barrel distribution points and near sites of hydrological information campaigns; thus, policy makers might increase green‐technology adoption in areas where they can do the most good by reducing transaction costs and providing education programs to those areas. Finally, our results indicate that owner occupancy is positively correlated with green‐technology adoption. Low‐rise rental housing may have inefficiently low levels of adoption, such that city managers might want to develop programs to encourage storm water management investments by landlords who do not live in their own properties.

Socioekonomske i higijenske karakteristike stanovanja u Srbiji

The man spent in the apartment / house over half of life, and children even more. Apartment is the center of the complex family and social functions closely associated with health, both directly and indirectly. The aim of this paper is to review the housing conditions of hygiene and socio-economic aspects. The realization of the objectives of the survey method was used to research, ie. Data were analyzed by large-scale survey research of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia 'Dr Milan Jovanović Batut'. The results showed that the apartments / houses in Serbia were technically very well equipped. Almost 100% of flats / houses were connected to electricity and drinking water to 95.2%. With a total sanitation was 85.2% flats / houses. Waste materials in a hygienic manner took the 76.4% of households in Serbia, in Belgrade 94.7%. Toilets is owned 96.2% of households and mainly on irrigation. The population with drinking water supplying mainly from municipal and local water supply, then from the wells and public drinking fountains. Households are the owners of flats / houses in 79.5% of cases. Own apartment / house had a 83.9% urban and 77% of rural households, and the difference was statistically significant (χ² = 55.134, df = 5, p <0.001). The largest number of households had an apartment / house with two rooms (37.7%), and a room about 12% of households, as much as four or five or more rooms. In Belgrade, a significantly higher proportion of one bedroom apartments, and a small er proportion of flats / houses with four or five or more rooms than in Serbia. These differences were statistically significant, and also a statistically significant difference in the number of rooms in apartments / houses in urban and rural areas: 21% of households in rural areas had five or more rooms, in urban areas 6.6%. The reverse was compared to a single room: had them 16% of households in urban areas, and 6% in rural areas (χ² = 493.504, df = 4, p <0.001). The largest number of apartments with the area was in the range from 51 to 75m2 (35.6%), and then to the surface at intervals of 25 to 50m2 and 76 to 100m2. Belgrade was 39.4% of dwellings with an area of 51 to 75m2, and then 30% of dwellings with an area of 25 to 50m2. These differences were statistically significant (χ² = 157.551, df = 8, p <0.001). Likewise, a statistically significant difference in the surface area of flats / houses in urban and rural areas (χ² = 508.827, df = 4, p <0.001). Maximum floor area per household in Serbia was over 25m2 (in 35.6% of cases), and then at intervals of 16 to 25m2 (34%) and less than 16m2 (30.4%). Belgrade was the other way around, and this difference was statistically significant, as well as between urban and rural settlements. The floors were mostly of the parquet and ceramic tiles (60.6%) and flooring or concrete (37.3%), more pronounced in Belgrade, as well as in urban areas compared to rural settlements. It was the same in terms of bathrooms.

Housing density as a predictor of neighbourhood satisfaction among families with young children in urban England

AbstractPatterns of residential mobility suggest that urban areas in the UK are considered unpopular places to live, in particular by families with young children. The unpopularity of urban areas has been attributed to characteristics of the built environment as well as to levels of deprivation. This paper examines the relationship between levels of neighbourhood satisfaction and the density of housing in the local area using a sample of mothers with young children living in urban areas in England. Separate analyses were conducted for mothers resident in private sector housing and in social housing. The main finding is that for both groups there is a negative relationship between neighbourhood satisfaction and housing density. The relationship between housing density and the reported level of neighbourhood satisfaction was largely independent of individual and household characteristics. The adjustment for different aspects of neighbourhood deprivation significantly attenuated the gradient in neighbourhood satisfaction. For respondents in social housing, the economic dimension of neighbourhood deprivation accounted for the association between housing density and neighbourhood satisfaction. However, for respondents in private sector housing, housing density remained a significant predictor of neighbourhood satisfaction. These results show that families with young children would prefer to live in neighbourhoods with lower housing densities. However, to the extent that the factors producing neighbourhood deprivation are modifiable it may be possible to increase the number of households in urban areas without making them less attractive places for families to live. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.