Assessing the pro-poorness of government fiscal policy in Thailand

This paper proposes a methodology to assess the pro-poorness of government fiscal policies in view of bringing marginal reforms. A government policy is said to be pro-poor if it benefits the poor proportionally more than the non-poor. The author first derives the poverty elasticity for the general class of poverty. Then, using the idea of poverty elasticity, she proposes a pro-poor index that can be utilized to assess government expenditure and tax policies. This index may be useful in making the government fiscal system more beneficial towards the poor through marginal reforms. The proposed methodology is applied to Thailand, utilizing the 1998 Socio-Economic Survey.Poverty, Income distribution, Pro-poor, Tax policy, Public spending

Vietnam: Jobs, Growth & Poverty

.Poverty, Jobs

On the link between the Bonferroni index and the measurement of inclusive growth.

In a recent paper Ali and Son (2007) suggested measuring the concept of "inclusive growth" via the use of what they called a "social opportunity function". The latter was assumed to depend on the average opportunities available in the population and to give greater weight to the opportunities enjoyed by the poor. On the basis of this approach Ali and Son (2007) then defined an "opportunity index" and an "opportunity curve". The present paper derives the link which exists between these concepts of "opportunity index" and "opportunity curve" and what is known in the literature as the Bonferroni index and the Bonferroni curve. It also defines what could be called a Bonferroni concentration index, a Bonferroni concentration curve, a Generalized Bonferroni curve and a Generalized Bonferroni concentration curve.Bonferroni index – concentration curve - concentration index – generalized Lorenz curve – human opportunity – opportunity index – opportunity curve

Evaluating Targeting Efficiency of Government Programmes: International Comparisons

targeting, pro-poor growth, poverty

Women's earning power and wellbeing

.Poverty, Women?s

A note on measuring unemployment

This paper proposes a new measure of the unemployment rate. This measure takes into account not only people who are unemployed, but also those earning below the subsistence level of income in the labor market. The proposed methodology is applied to Brazil?s unit record household surveys covering the period between 1995 and 2004.Open unemployment rate, Underemployment, Productive employment, Poverty

Pro-poor Growth: Concepts and Measurement with Country Case Studies

This paper looks into the interrelation between economic growth, inequality, and poverty. Using the notion of pro-poor growth, we examine the extent to which the poor benefit from economic growth. First, various approaches to defining and measuring propoor growth are scrutinised using a variety of criteria. It is argued that the satisfaction of a monotonicity axiom is a key criterion for measuring pro-poor growth. The monotonicity axiom sets out a condition that the proportional reduction in poverty is a monotonically increasing function of the pro-poor growth measure. The paper proposes a pro-poor growth measure that satisfies the monotonicity criterion. This measure is called a ‘poverty equivalent growth rate’, which takes into account both the magnitude of growth and how the benefits of growth are distributed to the poor and the non-poor. As the new measure satisfies the criterion of monotonicity, it is indicative that to achieve rapid poverty reduction, the poverty equivalent growth rate—rather than the actual growth rate—ought to be maximised. The methodology developed in the paper is then applied to three Asian countries, namely, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Evaluating Targeting Efficiency of Government Programmes: International Comparisons

This paper suggests how the targeting efficiency of government programmes may be better assessed. Using the “pro-poor policy” (PPP) index developed by the authors, the study investigates not only the pro-poorness of government programmes geared to the poorest segment of the population but also basic service delivery in education, health and infrastructure. The paper also shows that the targeting efficiency for a particular socio-economic group should be judged on the basis of a ‘total-group PPP index’, to capture the impact of operating a programme for the group. Using micro-unit data from household surveys, the paper presents a comparative analysis for Thailand, the Russian Federation, Viet Nam and 15 African countries.Targeting, universalism, pro-poor, poverty

New Global Poverty Counts

The main objective of this study is to compute an international poverty threshold based on the food requirement to ensure an adequate calorie intake for the world?s poorest. The study proposes a new methodology based on consumer theory to provide a caloric based international poverty threshold. Using this methodology, the international poverty line is estimated to be equal to $1.22 in 1993 PPP exchange rates. According to this new yardstick, almost 1.37 billion people were poor around the world in 2001. The study also provides global estimates of hunger, according to which 13.28 percent of the world population ? equivalent to 687 million people ? suffered from hunger in 2001.Poverty, Purchasing power parity, Global estimates