Lower Poverty Levels Research Articles

Comparing Neighborhoods of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in a Medicaid Waiver Program and a State Population, 2007-2015.

This study investigated equity in enrollment in a Medicaid waiver program for early intensive behavioral intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). State administrative, Medicaid, and U.S. Census data for children enrolled in the waiver program between 2007 and 2015 (N=2,111) were integrated. Multivariate and bivariate analyses were used to compare enrollees' neighborhood demographic characteristics with those of the state's general population, with controls for enrollees' age, sex, and race-ethnicity. Findings indicate that in general, enrollment was equitable. During the years in which there were inequities, children who lived in neighborhoods of privilege were favored. These neighborhoods had higher median incomes, lower poverty levels, and fewer female-headed households and were located in urban areas. As states work to provide equitable treatment to children with ASD and their families, it is important to track potential inequities between children who do and do not enroll in services and to use this information to inform outreach efforts. States may turn to South Carolina for insight on how to ensure equity.

An Analysis of Human Survival Strategies in Difficult Environments: A Case Study of the Kom Highlands in Cameroon

Mountainous regions and other difficult terrains, the world over, present significant challenges to communities as they strive to carry out their daily activities. In spite of these difficulties, strategies have been employed by communities to cope with such difficulties, yielding diverse outcomes. The extent and outcomes of survival strategies employed by communities, still beg for scientific and policy edification, in the context of the Western Highlands of Cameroon. This paper contributes to bridge the knowledge gap, by examining the survival strategies employed by locals in the Kom Highlands to confront the challenges presented by the harsh physical environment. 10 key informant interviews were conducted accompanied by a representative survey of 60 farming household heads, drawn from 5 villages in Fundong. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools, including the Chi-square analysis. The results reveal that Kom displays a plethora of harsh physical environmental characteristics, prominent among them are the hilly and difficult terrain, the poor soil quality and the generally cold weather conditions witnessed here. Faced with these challenges, the population employed a number of survival strategies in the agricultural sector, housing and transport. These strategies are unfortunately inadequate and such inadequacy is accounted for by their low level of technology, poverty, ignorance and other cultural factors, among others. The study therefore recommends the need to improve and modernize agriculture through the provision of fertilizers at subsidized rates to the farming population, the encouragement of effective slope stabilization and terracing and also for rigorous government intervention in terms of road and fly over constructions.

Women's pathways to prison in Kenya: Violence, poverty, familial caretaking and barriers to justice

Studies undertaken on women incarcerated in African countries are limited. In this article we explore Kenyan women's (n = 49) narratives of their journeys into prison using life history interviews and a feminist pathways approach. Results show the life stories of imprisoned women in Kenya reflect those of female prisoners elsewhere. In particular, victimisation, disordered familial and intimate relationships, low levels of education, poverty and motherhood (often in teen years) characterised many women's lives. Some also struggled with addiction (usually to alcohol but sometimes illicit drugs) and poor physical health due to HIV infection. Barriers to justice were a generic problem. In addition to these broad categorical findings six different pathway experiences were identified: 1) the economically motivated pathway; 2) domestic violence pathway, 3) harmed and harming pathway, 4) deviant women pathway, 5) pathway of negligible culpability and justice inaccessibility, 6) pathway of one life changing moment.

Non-Income Poverty Among the Elderly

This article uses data from a representative survey of retirees to estimate non-income poverty among the elderly. We examine six possible areas of deprivation (nutrition, financial well-being, property, housing, and social integration), as well as deprivation in general. Despite low levels of official poverty, senior citizens are often forced to limit their diets, experience difficulties in paying for medication and medical services, and suffer from inadequate everyday assistance and from lack of financial support. The risk of experiencing non-income poverty increases with the respondent’s age, while the presence of a partner, of working household members, or of a high education level substantially reduce it.

FDI, income inequality and poverty: a time series analysis of Portugal, 1973–2016

Using time series data for Portugal between 1973 and 2016, this paper examines to what extent, inward FDI contributes to income inequality and poverty in the long-run. It was found that increased flows of inward FDI are associated with a less unequal income distribution and lower poverty rates. The results further suggest that, in the Portuguese case there is mutual causality between inward FDI and poverty in the long run, i.e., FDI significantly reduces poverty, and lower levels of poverty lead to higher inward FDI flows. In the case of inequality, the evidence shows that FDI does not contribute to higher (or lower) income inequality. Instead, more unequal income distributions significantly and negatively impact on inward FDI in the long run. Finally, human capital emerged as a key determinant to mitigate income inequality and circumvent poverty, contributing, indirectly, to fostering additional FDI inflows. Such results call for integrated public policy interventions that emphasize social and institutional dimensions.

External Debt and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Long Run Analysis

The role of external debt in economic growth of developing countries has been questioned since there has been a high incidence of default, low economic growth and high levels of poverty, all of which are associated with high stocks of external debt. Also, the uncertainties about country external debt sustainability position as well as whether countries are already trapped in the debt-overhang situation have underlined point of debate among scholars. This study investigates the dynamic relationship between external debt and economic growth of Nigeria for period of 1985 to 2017 using Johansen approach to cointegration, vector error correction model (VECM) and granger causality test. Data for the study was collected from the CBN statistical bulletin. The findings revealed that debt service payment has negative and insignificant impact on Nigeria’s economic growth while external debt stock has negative and significant effect on economic growth. The causality test indicates no-directional causality between external debt and GDP. From the findings, the study recommends that policy-makers should reformulate the external debt management strategy to minimize sovereign risk through diversification of the external borrowing. This could potentially be achieved by reducing the dependency on one specific debt instrument or currency. Hence, the strategy will be effective if it is carried out in parallel with a comprehensive surveillance and debt-monitoring system.

Impact of Microfinance on Poverty Alleviation: A Global Analysis

Impact of Microfinance on Poverty Alleviation: A Global Analysis Wook Sohn, Laila Ume Abstract This paper investigates the impact of microfinance on poverty alleviation by using the cross-country data of microfinance institutions in 96 countries. We find that such institutions significantly affect poverty alleviation and are an effective tool for economic and financial development. Our results also show that a higher proportion of female recipients of microfinance loans and a large number of active borrowers are likely to lead to a lower level of poverty. These results remain qualitatively the same with various poverty measures and in random-effect models and a fixed-effect model. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jeds.v7n2a6

Disparities in Zika Virus Testing and Incidence Among Women of Reproductive Age-New York City, 2016.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) performs surveillance for reportable diseases, including Zika virus (ZIKV) infection and disease, to inform public health responses. Incidence rates of other mosquito-borne diseases related to international travel are associated with census tract poverty level in NYC, suggesting that high poverty areas might be at higher risk for ZIKV infections. We assessed ZIKV testing rates and incidence of travel-associated infection among reproductive age women in NYC to identify areas with high incidence and low testing rates and assess the effectiveness of public health interventions. We analyzed geocoded ZIKV surveillance data collected by NYC DOHMH. Women aged 15 to 44 years tested during January-July 2016 (n = 4733) were assigned to census tracts, which we grouped by poverty level and quartile of the number of persons born in countries or territories with mosquito-borne ZIKV transmission as a proxy for risk of travel to these areas. We calculated crude ZIKV testing rates, incidence rates, and incidence rate ratios (IRRs). New York City. Eight percent of patients (n = 376) tested had evidence of ZIKV infection. Cumulative incidence was higher both in areas with higher versus lower poverty levels (IRR = 2.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.0-3.0) and in areas with the largest versus smallest populations of persons born in countries or territories with mosquito-borne ZIKV transmission (IRR = 11.3; 95% CI, 6.2-20.7). Initially, ZIKV testing rates were lowest in higher poverty areas with the largest populations of persons born in countries or territories with mosquito-borne ZIKV transmission (15/100 000), but following targeted interventions, testing rates were highest in these areas (80/100 000). Geocoded data enabled us to identify communities with low testing but high ZIKV incidence rates, intervene to promote testing and reduce barriers to testing, and measure changes in testing rates.

Impact of climate-change risk-coping strategies on livestock productivity and household welfare: empirical evidence from Pakistan

Using the primary datasets collected from 700 livestock farmers from all four major provinces of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan, this paper analyzes the impact of climate-change risk coping strategies on household welfare. A Poisson regression model was used to estimate the determinants of the livestock ownership and multivariate probit model to assess the determinants of the measures taken to manage the climatic-risk challenge for livestock. A propensity score matching approach (PSM) was used to assess the impact of the adopted climate-risk management strategies on livestock farmers. Findings indicated that in Pakistan livestock farmers generally adopt four main types of strategies to cope with climate risk: livestock insurance, selling of livestock, allocation of more land area for fodder and migration. The results show that age, education, wealth, access to extension services, and membership in NGOs, influence the livestock farmers' choice of climate-risk-coping mechanisms. The livestock farmers who adopted risk-coping mechanisms generally fared better. Increasing the land area allocated to fodder seems to increase production of milk and butter, resulting in higher income and lower poverty levels. Those who bought insurance had more milk production and a lower poverty level, while those who sold livestock to cope with climate risk decreased production but increased household income and lowered poverty levels. Migration seems to have a negative impact on production and income. Impact assessments confirm that purchasing livestock insurance and increasing fodder areas are more effective compared to the selling of livestock and migration. Agricultural climate policy should focus on creating awareness as well as increasing access to extension services among livestock farmers on climate risk and risk-coping strategies to mitigate the impact on rural livelihoods.

Household Determinants of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a Cooking Fuel in SW Cameroon

Currently 70% of the population in Cameroon are reliant on solid fuel for cooking (90% in rural communities) and the associated household air pollution contributes to significant mortality and morbidity in the country. To address the problems of energy security, deforestation and pollution the government has developed a strategy (Masterplan) to increase use of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as a cooking fuel from 12% to 58% by 2030. As a clean fuel scaled adoption of LPG has the potential to make significant positive impacts on population health. The LPG Adoption in Cameroon Evaluation (LACE) studies are assessing in the community (i) barriers and enablers for and (ii) local interventions to support, adoption and sustained use of LPG. A census survey conducted for LACE in rural and peri-urban regions of SW Cameroon provided an opportunity to investigate current fuel use patterns and factors associated with primary and exclusive use of LPG. A cross-sectional survey of 1577 households (1334 peri-urban and 243 rural) was conducted in March 2016 using standardised fuel use and household socio-demographic questions, administered by trained fieldworkers. Wood (40.7%) and LPG (51.1%) were the most frequently reported fuels, although the dominant fuels in rural and peri-urban communities were wood (81%) and LPG (58%) respectively. Fuel stacking was observed for the majority of LPG using households (91% of peri-urban and 99% of rural households). In rural homes, a higher level of education, access to sanitation and piped water and household wealth (income and asset ownership) were all significantly associated with LPG use (p < 0.05). In peri-urban homes, younger age, access to sanitation and piped water and increasing education were significantly associated with both any and exclusive use of LPG (p < 0.05). However, whilst household wealth was related to any LPG use, there was no relationship with exclusive use. Results from this census survey of a relatively well-established LPG market with lower levels of poverty and high levels of education than Cameroon as a whole, find LPG usage well below target levels set by the Cameroon government (58% by 2030). Fuel stacking is an issue for the majority of LPG using households. Whilst, as observed here, education, household wealth and socio-economic status are well recognised predictors of adoption and sustained use of clean modern fuels, it is important to consider factors across the whole LPG eco-system when developing policies to support their scaled expansion. A comprehensive approach is therefore required to ensure implementation of the Cameroon LPG Masterplan achieves its aspirational adoption target within its stated timeframe.

POVERTY OF DISABLED PEOPLE AND HOUSEHOLDS

&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Our findings evidenced that the poverty level of disabled people is remain to be high despite the government policy regarding poverty and disability. Usually, not only disabled people but households with disabled individuals have high level of poverty. If one of the households members is disabled, the probability for household to be in the group with the income below poverty line increases dramatically. It is because majority of disabled people (in employable and childhood age groups) are members of households with three and more members. Households with one or two members have lower level of poverty than households with three and more members, particularly, in comparison with households with disabled persons. The probability to be in the group with income below poverty line is 30% for disabled people in employable age from households with three and more members. Often, households with four members have children that increase the probability to be in the group with income below poverty line. The data derived from surveys is shown that the main disadvantage of Russian government policy related to social care for disabled people is almost fully neglecting specific needs of different disabled groups. Existed payments are oriented to individual recipients of social support rather than whole households. &lt;/font&gt;

НЕДОХОДНАЯ БЕДНОСТЬ ПОЖИЛЫХ

&lt;p align="justify"&gt;В работе на данных репрезентативного обследования ветеранов труда оценивается недоходная бедность пожилых. Рассматриваются шесть возможных направлений депривации (питание, финансовое благосостояние, имущество, жилье, здоровье и социальная интеграция), а также депривация в целом. Несмотря на низкий уровень официальной бедности, пожилые граждане часто вынуждены ограничивать себя в питании, испытывают трудности с оплатой лекарств и медицинских услуг, страдают от недостаточной помощи в быту и отсутствия финансовой поддержки. Риск испытывать недоходную бедность растет с возрастом респондентов, в то время как наличие партнера, присутствие в домохозяйстве работающих, а также высокий уровень образования существенно его снижают. &lt;/font&gt;

Dissemination of a Web-Based Tool for Supporting Health Insurance Plan Decisions (Show Me Health Plans): Cross-Sectional Observational Study.

BackgroundThe rate of uninsured people has decreased dramatically since the Affordable Care Act was passed. To make an informed decision, consumers need assistance to understand the advantages and disadvantages of health insurance plans. The Show Me Health Plans Web-based decision support tool was developed to improve the quality of health insurance selection. In response to the promising effectiveness of Show Me Health Plans in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and the growing need for Web-based health insurance decision support, the study team used expert recommendations for dissemination and implementation, engaged external stakeholders, and made the Show Me Health Plans tool available to the public.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to implement the public dissemination of the Show Me Health Plans tool in the state of Missouri and to evaluate its impact compared to the RCT.MethodsThis study used a cross-sectional observational design. Dissemination phase users were compared with users in the RCT study across the same outcome measures. Time spent using the Show Me Health Plans tool, knowledge, importance rating of 9 health insurance features, and intended plan choice match with algorithm predictions were examined.ResultsDuring the dissemination phase (November 2016 to January 2017), 10,180 individuals visited the SMHP website, and the 1069 users who stayed on the tool for more than one second were included in our analyses. Dissemination phase users were more likely to live outside St. Louis City or County (P<.001), were less likely to be below the federal poverty level (P<.001), and had a higher income (P=.03). Overall, Show Me Health Plans users from St. Louis City or County spent more time on the Show Me Health Plans tool than those from other Missouri counties (P=.04); this association was not observed in the RCT. Total time spent on the tool was not correlated with knowledge scores, which were associated with lower poverty levels (P=.009). The users from the RCT phase were more likely to select an insurance plan that matched the tool’s recommendations (P<.001) compared with the dissemination phase users.ConclusionsThe study suggests that a higher income population may be more likely to seek information and online help when making a health insurance plan decision. We found that Show Me Health Plans users in the dissemination phase were more selective in the information they reviewed. This study illustrates one way of disseminating and implementing an empirically tested Web-based decision aid tool. Distributing Web-based tools is feasible and may attract a large number of potential users, educate them on basic health insurance information, and make recommendations based on personal information and preference. However, using Web-based tools may differ according to the demographics of the general public compared to research study participants.

Occupational health and safety characteristics of agricultural workers in Adana, Turkey: a cross-sectional study.

BackgroundAmong agricultural workers, especially in the seasonal migratory ones, housing and hygiene related issues, occupational accidents, low levels of education, poverty and absence of social security problems emerge as significant public health problems. This study aims to compare migrant-seasonal workers (MSWs) and resident agricultural workers (RAWs) in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and occupational health and safety in Adana, one of Turkey’s most important agricultural cities.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on RAWs and MSWs, aged 15–65, operating in the province of Adana. The calculated sample sizes for both MSWs and RAWs were distributed using stratified simple random sampling to five districts of Adana.ResultsThe mean age of the 798 participating agricultural workers was 34.6 ± 14.2. Of the RAWs, 78.8% and of the MSWs 57.0% were male; 5.8% of RAWs and 32.8% of MSWs were illiterate. The mean number of people in the households of the participating workers was 5.1 for RAWs and 6.6 for MSWs. Of the RAWs, 20.5% were not covered by any social security scheme while this percentage was 35.1% in MSWs. RAWs worked 9.9 h a day while MSWs worked 10.9 h a day. Of the agricultural workers, 12.9% had injuries caused by occupational accidents.DiscussionAgricultural workers, who are a large part of Turkey’s economically active population, do not have healthy and safe working conditions. New regulations in the fields of social security, record keeping, monitoring, supervision, education and occupational health have been implemented recently to solve these problems. Despite the recent improvements there are still some problematic issues in the auditing of the necessary practices.

Poverty and Inequality in Maharashtra: Inter-group Differentials and Its Determinants

This article examines the inequality and poverty across socio-religious groups in Maharashtra. It also examines the relative strength of factors affecting inequality and poverty and decomposes the differences in income between scheduled castes (SCs) and Hindu high castes (HHCs) based on the 68th National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey on consumption expenditure. The results show that consumption expenditure is substantially low among marginalised communities leading to high inter-group inequality. The relative strength of the factors affecting earnings across socio-religious groups shows that the overall inter-group disparities are due to inter-caste differences in the rates of return on assets, asset ownership and caste identity. Also, poverty reducing factors, such as ownership of agricultural land, non-farm enterprises/business and education, impact differently in reducing poverty, their relative impact in reducing poverty being less for schedule tribes (ST) and SC compared to OBC and high caste. Due to high education and greater ownership of capital assets by high caste, they have significant higher income and low poverty levels compared to Hindu other backward castes (HOBC), SC and ST and Muslim.

Improved water-management practices and their impact on food security and poverty: empirical evidence from rural Pakistan

Abstract Using a comprehensive data set collected through field survey of 950 farmers across Pakistan, the current study evaluates water-management practices and their impact on food security and poverty. The results show that rural households mainly adopted four water-management practices (bund making, deep plowing, the adoption of stress-tolerant varieties, and irrigation supplements) and that the wealth, education, and gender of the farmer (male) positively influences the adoption of improved water-management practices. The propensity score matching approach shows that the adoption of improved water-management practices improves wheat and rice yields, household income and food security levels, and reduces poverty levels. The food security levels of households adopting improved water-management practices are higher: in the range of 3–12%. Higher wheat yields are in the range of 26.8–70.4 kg/acre and higher rice yields are in the range of 48.4–85.2 kg/acre. Higher household income levels are in the range of rupees 2,573–4,926 and the lower poverty levels are in the range of 2–7%. Hence, agricultural policy should promote improved water-management practices among rural households.

More Inclusive States, Less Poverty Among Immigrants? An Examination of Poverty, Citizenship Stratification, and State Immigrant Policies

Over the last 20 years, policymaking related to immigrant populations has increasingly been conducted at the state-level. State immigrant polices may influence immigrant poverty by determining immigrants’ level of access to social, economic, political, and health resources and by shaping the social environment. Further, these immigrant policies may shape the stratification between citizens and noncitizens, potentially contributing to distinct patterns of disparities in poverty by both citizenship and race/ethnicity. To assess the relationship between immigrant policy and socioeconomic stratification of immigrants across citizenship status and race/ethnicity in the U.S., we combined data from the 2014 American Community Survey and a measure of level of inclusion of state immigrant policies. We estimated fixed-effects logistic regressions to test the associations between poverty and the interaction of level of inclusiveness, citizenship, and race/ethnicity, controlling for state- and individual-level characteristics. Results showed that there are significant disparities in poverty by citizenship status and race/ethnicity. Asian/Pacific Islander (API) noncitizens experienced lower levels of poverty in states with higher levels of inclusion. Both Latino and API citizens experienced lower levels of poverty in states with higher versus lower levels of inclusion. Among Latinos, the gap in poverty rates between noncitizens and citizens is larger in more inclusive than less inclusive ones, suggesting that the potential positive impact of more inclusive environments does not necessarily translate to the most vulnerable Latino group. The level of inclusion was not associated with differences among Whites and Blacks. Findings suggest that states with more inclusive immigrant policies may foster environments that advance the economic well-being of API noncitizens, as well as API and Latino citizens.

Growing Without Changing: A Tale of Egypt's Weak Productivity Growth

This paper aims to identify the reasons why economic growth in Egypt, although comparable to its peers, failed to significantly reduce unemployment, lower poverty levels or raise overall productivity. We use cross-country comparisons, counterfactual scenarios and regression analysis to demonstrate that Egypt, even during the high growth period of 2000-10, did not experience a reallocation of excess labour towards modern, productive sectors similar to what occurred in other emerging markets, notably in South East Asia. The results show that, while there is large potential for productivity gains in the Egyptian economy, a limited openness to trade, a low diversification of exports and deficient access to finance prevented the country from witnessing a structural shift of its labour force towards manufacturing and private services, locking Egypt instead within a “low value trap”. The paper then suggests some policy implications of these findings, relating to overcoming the main impediments to preventing an efficient sectoral reallocation of workers.

Inženjering održivog razvoja u Rumuniji

Economics is just the core of a development cell. Every healthy society wants prosperity. The model that Romania has been looking for a long time has to come from the following criteria: prosperity for the country, a state of development for a critical mass of the population and a lower level of poverty. At the same time, the possibility of having a normal, decent state for those in need of social assistance should be considered. If Romania wants to have a wider perspective, then it is better suited for sustainable development. It is at this model that Romania should think of, because it needs it.

Rural Livelihood Diversification Strategies and Household Welfare in Bhutan

This paper analyzes rural livelihood diversification strategies and their impact on household welfare using the Bhutan Living Standard Survey 2012. The multinomial estimation shows that education, asset endowment, labor availability, and sex (male/female) of the household head play a vital role in livelihood diversification into non-agricultural sectors. Propensity score matching estimates illustrate that rural households diversifying outside agriculture have higher income and lower poverty levels compared to households pursuing only farming for their livelihoods. Livelihood diversification into non-farm activities can help reduce poverty levels in the range of 6–9 per cent, suggesting the importance of livelihood diversification in reducing poverty and increasing household income in Bhutan.