Population Poverty Research Articles

Where is the Poverty–Environment Nexus? Evidence from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam

Summary This paper investigates the poverty–environment nexus at the provincial and district levels in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. The analysis focuses on spatial associations between poverty populations and five environmental problems: deforestation, fragile soils, indoor air pollution, contaminated water, and outdoor air pollution. The results suggest that the nexus is quite different in each country. We conclude that the nexus concept can provide a useful catalyst for country-specific work, but not a general formula for program design. Joint implementation of poverty and environment strategies may be cost effective for some environmental problems, but independent implementation may be preferable in many cases as well.

Understanding community forestry: a qualitative meta‐study of the concept, the process, and its potential for poverty alleviation in the United States case

This paper provides an assessment of the conceptual basis of community forestry from around the world, based on case studies presented in the literature, mainly over the last decade. More than 400 documents were examined for this comprehensive qualitative meta‐study (meta‐theory, meta‐analysis, meta‐method, and meta‐synthesis) of community forestry. An overall conclusion is offered regarding the extent to which community forestry can be adapted to foster practices that enhance livelihoods, particularly for poverty populations, in rural United States communities. Special attention is paid to signifiers of community empowerment and reflexivity as well as other elements of success suggested in the literature.

POVERTY, NON‐WHITE POVERTY, AND THE SEN INDEX

This paper investigates the impact of economic growth, and more specifically robust economic growth along with other macroeconomic determinants, on poverty levels using both the U.S. official measure of poverty and an estimated time series of Sen indices of poverty. The results reveal that the period of robust economic expansion that the U.S. economy experienced during the 1990s did not have a significant impact on poverty using either measure. In addition, we find that the impact of growth and other macro controls is dramatically different when a subset of the poverty population, namely non‐white poverty, is investigated. The percentage of households headed by women is shown to be a significant factor in examining poverty for this subgroup.

Debt, demographics, and dishonesty

The costs of supporting an aging society, in an era that will experience increased longevity, escalating health care costs, and low birth rates, will become untenable. The adjustments that must ultimately be made will inflict significant economic pain across all sections of society. Many people who regard themselves as being middle class will live out their lives in near-poverty. There are major implications for investment strategies. Long-term returns for most asset classes will be far lower than recent bull markets have led people to expect. Consumers, companies, and local and national governments all acquire debt. The impact of this debt depends on many factors. These include: its real (inflation-adjusted) cost, the degree of leverage and the debt-servicing capability, the uses that are made of the debt, and the identity of the creditors. The aging of western societies is not happening in isolation from demographic trends that are occurring elsewhere in the world. They are reforming totalitarian or corrupt political, legal, and class systems that kept the majority of their populations in poverty. The net result is a dramatic increase in global production capacity.

Poverty in America: a handbook

List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Preface to the 2012 Edition 1. Introduction 2. Early Views of Poverty in America 3. Methods of Measuring Poverty 4. Characteristics of the Poverty Population 5. Causes of Poverty 6. Why Poverty Remains High, Revisited 7. Poverty and Policy 8. Conclusion Appendix: Data and Methods for the Analysis in Chapter 6 Notes References Index

Agriculture and Rural Development: Lessons for Christian Groups Combating Persistent Poverty

Persistent poverty is one of the core challenges faced by Christians and by development scholars and practitioners alike. There is no question that Jesus was concerned about the - both materially and spiritually. From his first public address in the Synagogue in Nazareth, His home town, where concluded by saying that had come to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4:18), Jesus lived the gospel in word and deed. We, as Christian men and women, whether researchers or practitioners, are called to do no less. When Jesus made His parting remarks to His disciples, said (John 20:21) As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. emphasizing that we are to do likewise. This concern permeates the Old and New Testament, another example being the words of the prophet Micah (6:8): He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. We are here to think through together some of the implications of this mandate for ourselves as researchers and practitioners. More specifically, to consider how the work we do as researchers can inform our work in the field as practitioners in such a way as to more effectively help those who are materially In most wealthy countries, poverty is generally a short-lived phenomenon. This is not the case throughout the developing world. In the United States, for example, less than one quarter of those living below the poverty line remain below the poverty line 12 months later and only 13 percent are still 24 months later. Although our cross-sectional poverty of 11.7 percent is relatively high - although it must also be borne in mind that our poverty line is relatively high, too - in the United States, the long-term, structurally are a very small minority, roughly one percent of the population. Elsewhere, long-term, structural poverty is the norm. World Bank figures show that, as of 1999, 2.78 billion people lived on less than $2/day, most of them in Asia, but with sub-Saharan Africa evincing the largest - and growing - share of its population in severe poverty (World Bank, 2002). Unlike in the United States, we do not yet know a great deal about the expected duration of poverty for people in the developing world. While the median time in poverty in the United States is 4.5 months (Naifeh, 1998), the median time in poverty in rural Bangladesh, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya or Madagascar is roughly a lifetime. Of particular concern to Christians, the expectation of lifetime impoverishment tends to foster hopelessness. Without hope, people find it hard to contemplate or effect change. With hope, many things become possible. The Gospel message and the practical challenges of reducing persistent poverty thus go hand-in-hand with helping the downtrodden to find hope. We also know that most of the world's - by most estimates, 70 percent or so - live in rural areas and most work, at least part-time, in agriculture. For this reason, agricultural and rural development is an essential component of any reasonable strategy to combat persistent poverty. In the words of T. W. Schultz's 1979 Nobel address, of the people in the world are poor, so if we knew the economics of being we would know much of the economics that really matters. Most of the world's people earn their living from agriculture, so if we knew the economics of agriculture we would know much of the economics of being poor. But the challenge is daunting. To increase incomes by just one dollar a day for the world's rural will require an increase of more than $700 billion in annual rural earnings. In this paper, we strive to highlight key issues that Christian development organizations must face as they set priorities and make design choices about how to make progress toward that goal.

GREENBERG, Ira, ed. (with R. G. Safran & S. G. Arcus), THE HEBREW NATIONAL ORPHAN HOME; Memories of Orphanage Life

GREENBERG, Ira, ed. (with R. G. Safran & S. G.Arcus), THE HEBREW NATIONAL ORPHAN HOME; Memories of Orphanage Life. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001,328pp., $74.95 hardcover. This collection of essays weaves personal reminiscence, factual history and photographs, into a mosaic of experiences of 1300 to 1800 hundred boys who spent their formative years in The Hebrew National Orphan Home (HNOH) in Yonkers, New York, between 1914 and Home's closing in 1958. While falling initially into broad category of Jewish social history, book has a broader appeal in a comparative context. McClelland' s (1989) study of orphans brought to Canada through Canadian Catholic Emigration Society, comes to mind as does Hamelin's (1997) more recent work on British orphans brought to Canada and hired out to work through Orphan Homes of Scotland Resettlement village. Maunders (1994), in comparing upbringings of children in Protestant Orphanages in Canada, Australia and United States, found orphanage life characterized by same strict discipline, corporal punishment and chores described in this volume. Thus there may well be, at least in past history of orphanages, a universal character despite particularities of specific institutions. This volume has significance in ongoing debate in North America as to whether orphanages might not be a better alternative to shoddy and poorly supervised foster care. While individuals writing here do not claim to be spokesmen for all their mates, they provide a detailed and even-handed picture of life at the home. The wrenching circumstances of parental deaths, family poverty, abandonment and families split by immigration, brought boys to home initially. Those with families were lucky to receive intermittent visits, since a two-mile walk waiting visitors beyond end of street-car line. Recollections of physical and sexual abuse and bullying, often visited upon weak, friendless or new boys, are chilling and indignation and anger of these aging orphans comes through to readers. But many memories are fond ones; recollections of staff members and administrators of exceptional character and caring, as well as conscientious in-house teachers of New York Public schools, who prepared their boys for larger world of Yonkers' Roosevelt High School. Some recollections are quite humorous suggesting that HNOH was hardly a bleak place - far from it. The well-rounded curriculum, sports, art, music and hobby activities, and concern for individual development, suggest that administrators were attuned to (then) modern currents of Progressive Education. In earlier years, many children came from immigrant families but later many were native born. The popular perception of affluence of Jewish communities in North America is misleading. For example, in Canada Jews are less than 1% of population in poverty, but rate is 17% within Jewish population (Torczyner, 1994). Thus while numbers are small, there are significant numbers of individuals fitting profile of poverty. …

An economic efficiency analysis of deconcentrating poverty populations

This paper presents a comparative static analysis using a conceptual model of the social benefits and costs associated with alternative spatial distributions of the poor. This analysis demonstrates that the necessary and sufficient conditions for justifying deconcentration of the poor on the grounds of increasing net social benefits are much more stringent than is commonly believed, fundamentally involving particular sorts of non-linear relationships between neighborhood poverty rates and the propensity of neighboring individuals to engage in problem behaviors and to earn less. The paper then conducts a meta-analysis of the limited empirical evidence available. The weight of the evidence implies that net social benefits would be improved if neighborhoods with greater than about 15% poverty rates were replaced with (an appropriately larger number) of neighborhoods having less than 15% poverty rates. However, net social benefits would be smaller if neighborhoods with greater than about 40% poverty rates were replaced with (an appropriately larger number) of neighborhoods having between about 15–40% poverty rates.

Cobertura geográfica del sistema mexicano de salud y análisis espacial de la utilización de hospitales generales de la Secretaría de Salud en 1998

To describe the geographical coverage of the Mexican Healthcare System (MHS) services and to assess the utilization of its General Hospitals. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to include sociodemographic data by locality, the geographical location of all MHS healthcare services, and data on hospital discharge records. A maximum likelihood estimation model was developed to assess the utilization levels of 217 MHS General Hospitals. The model included data on human resources, additional infrastructure, and the population within a 25 km radius. In 1998, 10,806 localities with 72 million inhabitants had at least one public healthcare unit, and 97.2% of the population lived within 50 km of a healthcare unit; however, over 18 million people lived in rural localities without a healthcare unit. The mean annual hospital occupation rate was 48.5 +/- 28.5 per 100 bed/years, with high variability within and between states. Hospital occupation was significantly associated with the number of physicians in the unit, and in the Mexican Institute of Social Security units utilization was associated with additional health infrastructure, and with the population's poverty index. GIS analysis allows improved estimation of the coverage and utilization of MHS hospitals.

Social Capital and Government Performance

This article examines the proposition that in American cities higher levels of social capital lead to higher quality governmental performance, even when controlling for the cities’ political culture, demographic variables, and quality of life. Two indicators of social capital are employed: level of diffuse social and political trust and level of involvement in local fraternal organizations. The quality of a city’s governmental performance is indicated by data published by the Government Performance Project completed by Governing: The Magazine of States and Localities and the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. The quality of performance is measured in five domains (financial management, human resource management, information technology management, capital management, and managing for results). Political culture is assessed using the Elazar distinctions among Moralistic, Traditionalistic, and Individualistic culture types. Demographic composition is assessed through aggregate census statistics on poverty, educational attainment, and non-White populations. Quality of life indicators are derived from Places Rated Almanac. In the 20 cities available for this study, the results indicate that the level of social capital has a significant independent impact on the quality of urban governmental performance, even when controlling for political culture, demographic variables, and overall quality of life. Implications are drawn for efforts at building social capital as a means to enhance democratic governance and improve government performance.

Assessing homeless population size through the use of emergency and transitional shelter services in 1998: results from the analysis of administrative data from nine US jurisdictions.

This study reports findings from the first-ever systematic enumeration of homeless population size using data previously collected from administrative records of homeless services providers in nine US jurisdictions over a one year period. As such, it provides the basis for establishing an ongoing measure of the parameters of the homeless population and for tracking related trends on the use of homeless services over time. Each participating jurisdiction collected data through its homeless services management information systems for persons and families who use emergency shelter and transitional housing. The jurisdictions organized the data by a standardized reporting format. These data form the basis for reporting homeless population size, both in raw numbers and as adjusted for each jurisdiction's overall population size, as well as the rate of turnover and average annual length of stay in emergency shelters and transitional housing. Individual jurisdictions had annual rates of sheltered homelessness ranging from 0.1% to 2.1% of their overall population, and 1.3% to 10.2% of their poverty population. Annual population size was 2.5 to 10.2 times greater than the point-prevalent population size. Results are broken down for adults and families. The prevalence of homelessness varies greatly among the jurisdictions included in this study, and possible factors for this diversity are discussed. Future reports of this nature will furnish similar series of homeless enumerations across a growing number of jurisdictions, thereby providing a basis for exploring the effects of different contextual factors on local prevalence rates of homelessness.

Development, Production, and Quality Control of Nutritional Supplements for a National Supplementation Programme in Mexico

The objective of this study was to develop supplements for nutritional support of children less than two years old and for pregnant and lactating women under a multidisciplinary Programme of Education, Health, and Nutrition (PROGRESA) that the Mexican Government is implementing for populations in extreme poverty. Nutrient composition, physicochemical properties, and feasibility of production and utilization were considered in designing the supplements. The nutrient composition took into account the dietary patterns and nutritional status of the target populations. The ingredients and processing methods were selected considering local availability and production at a relatively low cost while maintaining a supplement of a high quality that would be widely accepted by the target population. The final products were initially evaluated for acceptability by 40 children, 52 pregnant women, and 62 lactating women. Nine products were developed: six for children and three for women. The children's products were three powders that were used to prepare a beverage with chocolate, vanilla, and banana flavours and three powders that were used to prepare a more viscous solution in the form of pap with the same three flavours. After the acceptance test, the use of the pap supplements was recommended for children four months to two years of age. The supplements for women were also powders used to prepare a beverage with vanilla or banana flavour or with no flavour. The products were widely accepted in sensory evaluation tests. For the children's products, the average scores were 4.11 to 4.29 for the beverage and 3.98 to 4.15 for the viscous mixture (range, 1 to 5). The women's products received average scores of 4.75 to 5.70 from pregnant women and 4.80 to 5.40 from lactating women (range, 1 to 7). Evaluation in the community demonstrated that the supplements were widely acceptable and well consumed. Today more than three million rations of supplements are consumed every day, and an evaluation of their potential benefits is being carried out.

Welfare Reform: Block Grants, Expenditure Caps, and the Paradox of the Food Stamp Program

According to Contract with America issued by House Republican Conference in September 1994, party's blueprint for welfare reform would include a cap on spending growth of AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children], SSI [Supplemental Security Income], and numerous public housing programs, and mandatory work program established under bill. The cap would equal the amount spent preceding year for these programs with an adjustment for inflation plus growth in poverty population. Food stamps would not be included within cap, but instead would be consolidated with a number of other nutrition programs into a block grant to states, in first year at 95 percent of aggregate amount of individual programs.1 In House version of Personal Responsibility Act passed by new Republican majority in March 1995, AFDC, child and foster care, school meals, and special nutrition aid for pregnant women and young children would all be transformed into block grants to states funded approximately at current levels. Yet block grant option intentionally was rejected for food stamp program, which would be retained as a federal entitlement with its expenditures capped. Unless overridden by explicit legislation, program obligations could not exceed amount of current Congressional Budget Office estimate, adjusted only for provisions of welfare reform act.2

Epidemiology and Assessment of Mental Health in Poverty Populations: Implications for Head Start

Epidemiology and Assessment of Mental Health in Poverty Populations: Implications for Head Start

The Feminization of Poverty: Myth or Reality?

The feminization of poverty is a widely discussed concept in the mass media, and in academic circles, which captures the following facts: there are more poor women than poor men, and women are more likely to fall into poverty because of gender-related factors. In this article, I examine the concept's empirical basis and theoretical significance. The data show that poverty among men increased faster than poverty among women during the 1980-81 recession. While the sex composition of the poverty population has remained relatively unchanged since 1966, its age composition has changed: poverty has increased substantially among working men and women aged 18 to 44. Also, the higher proportion of women in the poverty population cannot be considered simply an effect of male privilege; on the contrary, it may be partially accounted for by higher mortality rates among working-class men. Theoretically, I argue that the meaning of these trends cannot be established using only age and sex categories of analysis. The trends document the progressive immiseration of the working class. Younger workers of both sexes today are worse off than older workers. A discussion of poverty purely in terms of the age, sex, or racial/ethnic composition of the poverty population hides the roots of poverty in the mode of production and succeeds in obfuscating the issues, fueling conflict between men and women, young and old, and white and nonwhite. Only by taking into account the class relations that structure people's life chances is it possible to understand the significance of present trends.

Open Discussion of Epidemiology and Assessment of Mental Health in Poverty Populations: Implications for Head Start

Open Discussion of Epidemiology and Assessment of Mental Health in Poverty Populations: Implications for Head Start

Conservation and Management of Watershed Region by Nepalese Women Leading to Enhancement of Water Potential

Within the three ecological belts of the Nepalese Himalayas,the hill has been identified as the extensive horizon of excessive environmental degradation, poverty and underemployed population pressure. The urgency of watershed management and identification of the grass-roots people as 'the prime actor' have now been recorded. Conservation programmes have been undertaken: leasehold and grazing development interlinks management with promotion of living status of the poor, and the community forest aims at forest management through users' group. Women's management role in the Shivapuri Watershed, which supplies water to Kathmandu where half the urban population of Nepal are located, has been noted, pointing out the impact of urban influence in resource management. Essential measures have been sought to enhance women's capabilities in management undertakings.

Christian mission in contemporary Asia

Introduction Asia is a vast continent, stretching from Turkey in the West to Japan in the East, from the Indian sub-continent in the South to the Asian part of Russia in the North. Even Australia and New Zealand are seen to come under the sphere of Asian influence. Much of Asia was under Western colonial power until after the Second World War. The contemporary history of Asia is that of the past fifty years. In this period Asia has seen rapid changes in much of its life. Japan recovered from the devastation of defeat to emerge as a global economic power. China totally rearranged its 5000 year old systems and culture and continues its transformation sometimes violently but apparently with no outside influence. Most commentators concede that China will be the super-power of the early 21st century, both economically and politically. South-East Asia transformed its economies once the upheavals of the Vietnam war subsided with the withdrawal of the American military. South Asia is now liberating its economies, bringing great economic wealth to some but leaving nearly half its population in poverty. West Asia continues to give priority to Islamicising its society and is marked by internal and external struggles. Overall, Asia is a region of rapid transitions with strong forces resisting change and stronger forces directing it. In most of Asia religion continues to have a central role in all of life. There is a reluctance to construct a society which does not have religion as a driving force. A majority of the poor of the world live in Asia, and for them, survival is a daily struggle. In contrast, Asia is the continent of economic tigers who have consistently shown growth rates that have attracted significant investments from all over the world. Some of the highest investment in military hardware is also characteristic of the region. Tensions exist between some nations, such as between India and Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, China and Taiwan, and so on, and these sometimes erupt into border skirmishes. All Asian nations have ethnic and/or religious minorities whose status and rights become matters of dispute and a source of instability and sometimes violence. The 21st century will see Asia play a central role in global affairs. While the Christian faith has its origins in Asia, the minority number of Christians make the church a marginal institution on the continent. Christianity, through Christian missions, has always had a far greater influence on Asia than is reflected by its numbers, while Christian influence in Japan is far greater than its size would suggest. Christian influence is dominant in South Korea, and is increasing in Taiwan. In spite of its marginal size in the rest of Asia (except The Philippines) Christianity continues to be a significant source of social influence in those areas of Asia. The church continues to be a pioneer in work among the disadvantaged peoples, while its perseverance in activities of social transformation make it a unique instrument of civil society in Asia. I. Exegeting the Contemporary Context I wish to approach a study of the context by looking at driving forces and trends that shape the context rather than at institutions, systems and structures. This is a cultural analysis of the context rather than a socio-economic and political one. However, the socio-economic and political issues continue to have an important place. A. Driving Forces I suggest that dominant driving forces in the shaping of contemporary Asian societies are modernization and the striving for identity. 1. Modernization: The modern world of the mid-twentieth century into which most Asian nations emerged as independent states was shaped by the forces that shaped Europe since the 15th century. Economic, political and educational systems, warfare, international relations, nation-states, markets, financial and communication systems, among others, are all products of modernity that originated in Europe and now influence all societies. …

City-Suburban Income Disparities and Metropolitan Area Employment

Were tight metropolitan labor markets in 1990 associated with narrow spatial income disparities between central cities and their suburbs? In U.S. national policy, it is assumed that maintaining high levels of national economic growth will attract inner-city poverty populations into the world of work, thereby reducing suburban-city income gaps. The authors examine the impact of tight labor markets on these disparities by developing regression models for metropolitan statistical areas. Economic growth, fostering tighter labor markets, is clearly desirable. However, tightening local labor markets actually exacerbates disparities to a point. Past that point disparities begin to decrease, but at a very slow rate.

Immigration, Welfare Magnets and the Geography of Child Poverty in the United States

This study presents a detailed look at the immigration and internal migration dynamics of child poverty for US States based on the 1990 US census. It assesses the impact of two policy-relevant factors on the migration of poor children across States: (1) the role of high immigration levels as a potential “push” for native-born and longer-term resident poor children whose parents may be reacting to the economic competition or social costs in high immigration States; and (2) the role of State AFDC benefits as a potential “pull” for poor children who migrate with their parents to States with higher benefit levels. The results make plain that the interstate migration patterns of poverty children differ from those of nonpoverty children, especially among whites and blacks. Female-headed households show different inter-state migration patterns than those in married-couple households. However, a multivariate analysis which includes standard state-level economic attributes provides more support for an “immigration push” than for a “welfare magnet pull” in affecting the inter-state migration of poor children. The findings also show a demographic displacement of poor children occurring in high immigration States where the net out-migration of poor children is more than compensated by larger numbers of new immigrant children in poor families with different demographic attributes. Because of these migration dynamics, the demographic profile of the child poverty population will differ across States, suggesting the need for different strategies toward reducing child poverty at the State level.