Non-poor Households Research Articles

Understanding urban inequalities in children\u2019s linear growth outcomes: a trend and decomposition analysis of 39,049 children in Bangladesh (2000-2018)

BackgroundDespite significant progress in reducing child undernutrition, Bangladesh remains among the top six countries globally with the largest burden of child stunting and has disproportionately high stunting prevalence among the urban poor. We use population representative data to identify key predictors of child stunting in Bangladesh and assess their contributions to linear growth differences observed between urban poor and non-poor children.MethodsWe combined six rounds of Demographic and Health Survey data spanning 2000-2018 and used official poverty rates to classify the urban population into poor and non-poor households. We identified key stunting determinants using stepwise selection method. Regression-decomposition was used to quantify contributions of these key determinants to poverty-based intra-urban differences in child linear growth status.ResultsKey stunting determinants identified in our study predicted 84% of the linear growth difference between urban poor and non-poor children. Child’s place of birth (27%), household wealth (22%), maternal education (18%), and maternal body mass index (11%) were the largest contributors to the intra-urban child linear growth gap. Difference in average height-for-age z score between urban poor and non-poor children declined by 0.31 standard deviations between 2000 and 2018. About one quarter of this observed decrease was explained by reduced differentials between urban poor and non-poor in levels of maternal education and maternal underweight status.ConclusionsAlthough the intra-urban disparity in child linear growth status declined over the 2000-2018 period, socioeconomic gaps remain significant. Increased nutrition-sensitive programs and investments targeting the urban poor to improve girls’ education, household food security, and maternal and child health services could aid in further narrowing the remaining linear growth gap.

Participation of Local People in the Payment for Forest Environmental Services Program: A Case Study in Central Vietnam

In 2010, Vietnam implemented the payment for forest environmental services (PFES) program that was expected to bring additional income to local people and improve the efficiency of forest protection. However, factors affecting the motivation to participate in PFES have rarely been examined. The objectives of this study were to (1) identify factors that influence local people’s participation in PFES, (2) examine how local people participating in the PFES program were involved in decision-making in the Thua Thien Hue Province, and (3) assess PFES impact on local people. We conducted a field survey of 32 households at the study site. We found no difference in the access to PFES between poor and non-poor households. Participation in PFES was considered a reward for labor work in forests and a means to compensate for the legal rights of participants. Local people could participate at many stages of PFES implementation; however, they were only passive spectators with regards to PFES management. Two-thirds of the participants did not participate in decision-making regarding PFES distribution. We conclude that the efficiency of future PFES programs may be increased by enabling and stimulating the participants to take a more active part in the process of PFES management and distribution.

Intrahousehold Resource Allocation and Individual Poverty: Assessing Collective Model Predictions using Direct Evidence on Sharing

AbstractWelfare analyses conducted by policy practitioners around the world usually rely on equivalised or per capita expenditures and ignore the extent of within-household inequality. Recent advances in the estimation of collective models suggest ways to retrieve the complete sharing process within families using homogeneity assumptions (typically preference stability upon exclusive goods across individuals or household types) and the observation of exclusive goods. So far, the prediction of these models has not been validated, essentially because intrahousehold allocation is seldom observed. We provide such a validation by leveraging a unique dataset from Bangladesh, which contains information on the fully individualised expenditures of each family member. We also test the core assumption (efficiency) and homogeneity assumptions used for identification. It turns out that the collective model predicts individual resources reasonably well when using clothing, i.e., one of the rare goods commonly assignable to males, females and children in standard expenditure surveys. It also allows for identifying poor individuals in non-poor households, while the traditional approach understates poverty among the poorest individuals.

Poverty and vulnerability in Mozambique: An analysis of dynamics and correlates in light of the Covid-19 crisis using synthetic panels.

This study aims at providing new insights into poverty, vulnerability, and their correlates in Mozambique, applying synthetic panels techniques and expanding on earlier analyses. Our results suggest that there is a high degree of poverty immobility, especially in rural areas in the northern and central regions and for low‐educated people. Even nonpoor households are at a high risk to vulnerability, and this risk does not differ much for households in urban/rural areas or in different regions or with different education levels. We also observe that a large portion of the population remains in or out of poverty over the entire year, with a higher percentage of individuals moving into poverty between the dry and the rainy seasons and a nonnegligible proportion of vulnerable people not managing to revert to nonpoverty in the subsequent dry season. Overall, these findings are highly relevant for designing anti‐poverty policies and strategies, as they provide information on intra‐year shocks and on some of the characteristics related to upward and downward mobility over longer time spans, also with regard to the recent Covid‐19 and other recent shocks suffered by the country.

Who Lost Most Wages and Household Income during the COVID‐19 Pandemic in Poor Rural China?

China managed to eliminate all extreme poverty in rural areas in 2020. Poor households, however, may risk falling back into poverty due to the COVID‐19. This paper examines the impacts of the pandemic on wages and household incomes among different groups in poor areas of rural China. Using a unique dataset from five poverty‐stricken counties, we found that the pandemic has had large negative effects on wage income for migrant workers and workers in manufacturing, the private sector, and small enterprises. Compared with households relying on wage income, households relying on small businesses have suffered much more from the pandemic, whereas households depending on farming or transfer payments have been less affected. Although poor and ethnic minority households lost significant amounts of wage income due to the pandemic, they did not lose more household income than nonpoor and nonminority households. We conclude that support from the government has kept vulnerable households from suffering more than other households from the effects of COVID‐19. Our findings suggest that the government can play a strong role in alleviating the negative impacts of the COVID‐19.

The Impacts of COVID‐19 on Migrants, Remittances, and Poverty in China: A Microsimulation Analysis

Chinese migrant workers are very exposed to the shocks caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Falling remittances adversely affect their families who rely on remittance incomes. The impacts of COVID‐19 on migrants and remittance‐receiving households are assessed using a nationally representative household dataset and a microsimulation model. We found about 70 percent of migrant workers lost part of their wage income during the pandemic lockdown period and rural migrants working in small and medium enterprises were affected the most. This led to about 50 percent of remittance‐receiving households being affected adversely by falling remittances, and the average decline in such income was more than 45 percent. Nearly 13 percent of pre‐pandemic nonpoor remittance‐receiving households could fall into poverty, raising the poverty rate among remittance‐receiving households by 4 percentage points. Many households that were poor prior to the pandemic became more impoverished. The results indicate that social protection programs targeting vulnerable migrants and their families at home are important.

Catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment in Vietnam: Evidence from national Household Living Standards Surveys 2008–2018

One of the strategic objectives of the Vietnamese government in achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is to develop a sustainable, equitable, and effective health financing system. This study aimed to examine the incidence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and impoverishment in Vietnam at different thresholds of expenditure. The data were obtained from six national representative Household Living Standards Surveys from 2008 to 2018. We found that the incidence and intensity of CHE declined significantly over study years. Additionally, we found a substantial reduction in the incidence and intensity of medical impoverishment in Vietnam. The increase in the poverty gap in 2012 and 2014 was because non-poor households became poor after out-of-pocket (OOP) health payments. However, the rise in poverty gaps in 2008, 2010, 2016 and 2018 was attributable to the worsening state of existing poor households after healthcare payments. In addition, we found that the CHE rate and impoverishment were more concentrated in the poor quintile groups. Furthermore, we found that the Red River Delta had the highest CHE rate, whereas the Northern Midland region experienced the strongest poverty impact of OOP payments. Generally, in Vietnam, the health financing system has had no considerable success in reducing inequality across quintiles and regions. Finally, our findings revealed that health insurance showed positive impacts on households’ financial protection against CHE and impoverishment, after enacting both the first Health Insurance Law in 2009 and the Revised Health Insurance Law in 2015. The results suggest that the health insurance scheme should be reviewed to continue reducing CHE and impoverishment, promoting equity and enhancing the performance of the health financing system in Vietnam.

Is off-grid residential solar power inclusive? Solar power adoption, energy poverty, and social inequality in India

With India’s soaring energy demand and inadequate access to grid electricity in rural areas, off-grid solar power is a potential alternative for tackling India’s energy poverty and inequality. However, little knowledge exists on: (1) the spatio-temporal pattern of solar power adoption by the residential sector in rural areas of India, (2) the extent to which solar power has alleviated (a) energy poverty, and (b) energy access inequality. Using panel data from approximately 9000 rural residents in six energy-poor Indian states, we compare the solar power adoption rate across states over time (2015 and 2018), examine the contribution of solar power for alleviating energy poverty, and identify socio-economic characteristics of adopters. The average solar energy adoption rate was nine percent in 2018, five percentage points higher than in 2015, with the highest adoption rate in Bihar, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. This growth was driven primarily by solar lantern uptake, with the use of solar home systems only growing by less than one percentage point. Solar energy adoption significantly contributed to energy poverty alleviation but was limited to improving illumination. Solar home system adoption improved the use of electronic appliances among adopters but did not significantly increase radio/television use. Solar power played a limited role in energy inequality alleviation. Lower caste, poor households, and day laborers are less likely to adopt solar power and less aware of the availability of solar power as a residential energy source than higher caste, non-poor households, and self-employed farmers, traders, and salaried employees.

Broadening the landscape of post-network cities: a call to research the off-grid infrastructure transitions of the non-poor

Within urban studies, the emerging post-network approach explores infrastructure transitions towards hybrid mixing of grid and off-grid technologies, resources, services, and actors. However, scholarship addressing off-grid transitions in the global south focuses almost exclusively on the poor as non-networked infrastructure consumers. This paper adopts a landscape perspective to consider broader processes of technological, institutional and behavioural change. Using a case study of Day Zero in Cape Town (South Africa), the paper draws on existing studies to demonstrate how the off-grid infrastructure transitions of non-poor households and businesses have potentially catastrophic (but largely ignored) consequences for cities in terms of environmental sustainability, urban governance and citizenship, network quality, and municipal finance. The paper concludes that broadening the landscape of infrastructure analysis, to consider the off-grid infrastructure transitions of the non-poor in the global south, is crucial to address contemporary global challenges.

Rainfall shocks and household welfare: Evidence from northern Ghana

CONTEXTRainfall shocks pose a threat to farmers in rural West Africa especially in the wake of the recurrent climate variability and its impacts on agricultural production. Despite the harm they pose, limited empirical studies exist on the welfare implications of rainfall shocks on farmers' welfare in West Africa. In addition, the potential impacts of rainfall induced commodity and labor market failures have not been given much attention in the empirical literature. OBJECTIVEOur study aimed to analyze the impact of negative rainfall shocks and commodity and labor market failures on farm households' welfare in northern Ghana. Examining the impact of commodity and labor market failures amidst the experience of a negative rainfall shock helps to identify the possible entry points through which the adverse impacts of rainfall deficits may be reduced. METHODSThe study is based on a household survey data from the Africa Rising program, historical daily climate data from the CCAFS-Climate data portal and random rainfall distributions from Monte Carlo simulation. A total of 1168 households were considered in the analysis. We analyze the impact of rainfall shocks and the above-mentioned entitlement failures using a static optimization model that incorporates a crop yield response function. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONWe found that an increase in the frequency of negative rainfall shocks under a dry future with and without entitlement failures would impact negatively on the total income and consumption levels of both the asset non-poor and asset poor households in the study area. The asset poor households would however bear the brunt of the impact, and the anticipated impact would mostly be yielded through changes in agricultural incomes and expenditure on food purchases. With increasing risk of dry rainfall conditions, total incomes of farmers could decrease by 7.3% to 45.5%. It was found that ignoring potential failures in commodity and labor markets lead to over/underestimation of the impacts of major rainfall deficits on the different types of farmers. The impact of rainfall shocks on the welfare of farmers is scenario and cluster dependent. SIGNIFICANCEThe results have significance for policy formulation and future research. The findings from this study indicate a need for targeting and acknowledgement of the differential impacts of climate shocks on the different farmer groups. Efforts made in future research to incorporate entitlement failures in climate impact studies could produce more informative guide for effective policy formulation.

A Study on the Socio-Economic Status of Covid 19 Patients in Coimbatore

This paper investigates the economic impacts of COVID-19 on households based on differences in the Socio-Economic Status (SES). We determine the household-level effects of the COVID-19 by using Religion, Mother tongue, Social background, Age, Education Qualification, Type of family, Marital status and Household Income. Poor households and households with low Socio-Economic prerequisites are struggling the most due to the pandemic. We used primary data of 50 sample respondents collected through snowball sampling technique using an Interview Schedule from Coimbatore. Poor households were less resilient and more likely to fall back into poverty due to COVID-19, while the opposite stands true for non-poor households with high SES. There are nonetheless very few literature articles associated with the influences of shocks on the Socio-Economic Status of specific households and communities in the developing world like India.

Women’s Empowerment in Household Decision-making among the Poor and Non-poor in Nepal

Women empowerment is taken as one of the major agenda for the twenty-first century in national and international development issues. The primary objective of this study is to examine the factors associated with women empowerment in household decision-making among poor and non-poor women in Nepal. This study uses data from the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. The analytic sample size of this study is 9575 currently married women aged 15-49. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the effect of demographic and socio-economic variables on women empowerment in household decision-making. The analysis of the result showed there is a significantly high variation between empowerment status and demographic and socio-economic background among the poor and non-poor. Women who have more children, older age, working women, and residing in urban areas were significant association and more likely to empower in household decision-making than having no children, young age and not working women among both poor and non-poor household wealth. However, women have significantly more decision-making power among non-educated women to compare with educated among poor; it is a quite inverse result among non-poor. Thus, this study suggests that it needs to identify and explore the pertinent issues with genuine reasons of the gap to be empowered in a variety of groups of population in Nepal.

Parental Migration and Psychological Well-Being of Children in Rural China

This paper empirically analyzes the impact of parental migration on the psychological well-being of children using ordered probit models based on a survey conducted among 1680 primary school students and their parents in Majiang County, Guizhou Province, China in 2020. The findings are as follows. First, compared with having no migrant parents, having two migrant parents significantly reduces the psychological well-being of children and having one migrant parent has no significant effect. Second, mediation analysis shows that parental migration reduces child depression by increasing household absolute and relative incomes. It also increases depression and reduces the subjective happiness of children by reducing parental discipline. However, it has no significant impact on parent–child interactions. Third, by dividing the sample by absolute and relative poverty, we find that the effect of parental migration on the psychological well-being of children varies with household economic conditions. Comparatively speaking, children from poor households are more affected by parental migration in terms of depression, whereas children from non-poor households are more affected by parental migration in terms of subjective happiness. This paper examines the transmission mechanism between parental migration and the psychological well-being of children, provides a perspective of household economic conditions for child psychology and offers useful insights for family education and government policymaking in this area.

Sharing the pie: An analysis of undernutrition and individual consumption in Bangladesh

Anti-poverty policies often aim to reach poor individuals by targeting poor households. However, intra-household inequality may mean some poor individuals reside in non-poor households. Using Bangladeshi data, we first show that undernourished individuals are spread across the household per-capita expenditure distribution. We then quantify the extent of total consumption inequality within families. We apply a novel approach to identify individual-level consumption within a collective household model and use the structural estimates to compute poverty rates separately for women, men, boys, girls, and the elderly. We find that women (especially older women) and children (later-born children in particular) face significant probabilities of living in poverty even in households with per-capita expenditure above the poverty line. This poverty misclassification is severe, as one third of poor individuals in our sample live in non-poor families.

Role of hypertension in the association of overweight and obesity with diabetes among adults in Bangladesh: a population-based, cross-sectional nationally representative survey

AimsOverweight and obesity (OWOB) is a modifiable risk factor for both hypertension and diabetes. However, the association between OWOB and diabetes among Bangladeshi adults and how hypertension may mediate this...

Dampak Subsidi Pendidikan BOS dan KIP Pada Pengeluaran Rumah Tangga Miskin dan Rumah Tangga non Miskin di Wilayah Bandung Timur

This study aims to determine and analyze the impact of the education subsidy program on household expenditures for the poor and non-poor households in Babakan Sari Village, Kiaracondong District, East Bandung. The aspects analyzed are differences in people's income, food and non-food expenditures, education subsidies, education expenditures, and education subsidies to food and non-food expenditures, in the poor and non-poor communities. This study uses a primary quantitative data analysis method, from the data processing shows that there are differences in the results of expenditures for poor households with non-poor household expenditures. Through this research, it is hoped that the poor can improve the quality of their education because education has a very important role in the development of a country. For non-poor people, they should care about education by provide financial assistance to schools for the advancement of education.

Association of household wealth and education level with hypertension and diabetes among adults in Bangladesh: a propensity score-based analysis.

To determine the association of household wealth and education level with hypertension and diabetes in Bangladesh using propensity score (PS) analyses. A nationally representative sample of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18 was analysed to explore the research question. A weighted sample of 11320 individuals was considered. Hypertension and diabetes were the outcomes of interest, and household wealth status (non-poor and poor) and education level (secondary/higher education and no secondary/higher education) were the exposure variables of interest. A person was defined as hypertensive if their average blood pressure was ≥140/90mmHg or self-reported history of taking antihypertensive medications. Individuals were classified as diabetic if they had a Fasting Blood Glucose level of ≥7mmol/l or reported taking prescribed medication for reducing high blood glucose or diabetes. We used the 1:1 nearest neighbour PS matching without replacement and PS weighting approaches to assess the association between the exposures and the outcome variables. Wealth status was significantly associated with diabetes but not with hypertension, while education status was significantly associated with neither diabetes nor hypertension. We also observed a significant interaction effect between household wealth status and education level with diabetes. The odds of diabetes were approximately 60% higher among adults from non-poor households and those without secondary/higher education. Diabetes prevention and control programs should focus on non-poor individuals, while hypertension prevention programs should target populations irrespective of educational attainment and wealth status.

Understanding Three Dimensions of Happiness Index in Kedungkandang District, Malang City, Indonesia

Poverty is the inability to meet the basic needs of life, both for food, clothing, and shelter that might happiness of the people’s life. By collecting both primary and secondary data, the main objective of this study is to determine the level of happiness of the people divided into poor and non-poor households, so that this research might bring a better understanding of poverty in Indonesia, with special case of Kedungkandang District, Malang City through the measurement of Happiness Index covering three dimensions. Happiness threshold is at a scale of 60-79,9 namely Happy level, result research indicates that the district has a quite happy level for the people whole live in it with an average value of the HI at about 44.62. Some important variables to be noticed from the three dimensions are the LSI indicates that in general district residents have higher social satisfaction than their personal, the LAI whereby variables of unworried and undepressed at some sub-districts indicate the very low value, and the LMI wherein neighborhood control has the very low value. For future research, it seems important to scrutinize the social structure of the community to find better possibilities on dealing with poverty through their social ties.

Socio-economic status, resilience, and vulnerability of households under COVID-19: Case of village-level data in Sichuan province.

This paper investigates economic impacts of COVID-19 on households based on differences in the socio-economic status (SES). We determine the household-level effects of the COVID-19 shock using income sources, types of industries, communities’ resilience, household susceptibility, and relevant policy measures. For this purpose, we used primary data of 555 households collected through snowball sampling technique using an online survey questionnaire from different villages mostly located in Sichuan Province, China. Using step-wise binary logistic regression analysis, we estimated and validated the model. Results suggest the use of SES as a better measure for understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on different households. We find that households with low SES tend to depend more on farmland income and transfer payments from the government. Contrarily, high SES households focus more on business and local employment as sources of income generation. Poor households were less resilient and more likely to fall back into poverty due to COVID-19, while the opposite stands true for non-poor households with high SES. Based on the estimations, policies encouraging employment and businesses complemented with loans on lower interest rates are recommended, which may increase the SES, thus minimizing vulnerability and enhancing the households’ resilience towards poverty alleviation and economic shocks.

STATUS BEKERJA, STRUKTUR KELUARGA DAN KERAWANAN PANGAN RUMAH TANGGA DENGAN ANAK

AbstractHousehold food insecurity is an important issue because of its negative impact on children’s health and nutrition. This study aimed to analyze the effect of working status and family structure on food insecurity in households with children. The data used comes from the 2018 National Socio-Economic Survey. The analysis was carried out separately for poor and non-poor households using binary logistic regression. The results showed that households with heads in part-time work and those with unemployed heads were more likely to be food insecure than households with heads in full-time work in both households, whereas households with heads not in labor force were significantly more likely to be food insecure only in the poor households. In the poor households, single-male headed households were more likely to be food insecure than single-female headed households while in the non-poor households, the opposite occurred. Strengthening social safety nets, expanding employment opportunities and providing education about food insecurity needs to be done in households with children.