Assessing alternative poverty proxy methods in rural Vietnam

This paper compares and contrasts the use of four "short-cut" methods for identifying poor households: the poverty probability method; ordinary least squares regressions; principal components analysis; and quantile regressions. After evaluating these four methods using two alternative criteria (total and balanced poverty accuracy) and representative household survey data from rural Vietnam, it is concluded that the poverty probability method-which can correctly identify around four-fifths of poor and non-poor households-is the most accurate "short-cut" method for measuring poverty for specific subpopulations, or in years when household surveys are not available. The performance of the poverty probability method was then tested with different poverty lines and using an alternative household survey, and found to be robus

HIV/AIDS in Rural Northeast Thailand: Narratives of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on individuals and households

HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest public health and development challenges currently faced by the global community. Amongst reported statistics, such as the estimated 39.5 million people infected with HIV at the end of 2006, the human face of HIV/AIDS is often lost. This paper presents several narratives of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on individuals and households, drawn from a 2003 survey of 71 HIV/AIDS patients in Khon Kaen Province, Northeast Thailand. These narratives illustrate the broad range of impacts of HIV/AIDS, as well as the diverse coping strategies that are employed to deal with those impacts. The narratives also demonstrate how the HIV/AIDS epidemic impacts not just those who are HIV-infected and other members of their household, but also the wider community

Poverty and living arrangements among youth in Spain, 1980-2005

One of the most relevant demographic events in Spain from a recent historical perspective was the baby boom of the 1960s and 1970s. The "adapting to circumstances" of these generations of youth and their families through delayed emancipation and childbearing has been key in preventing a decline in their economic status. The results show that the reduction of the poverty risk among non-emancipated youth for the period 1980-2005 is explained by the fact that an increasing number of young Spaniards live with both employed parents. Thus, emancipation delay is found most in those families that can best afford it. Furthermore, the salaries of young workers remaining in the parental home have become an important factor in reducing their family poverty risk. On the other hand, fertility decline is readily explained by the economic difficulties young couples encounter in sustaining their offspring.Heckman selection probit, living arrangements, youth poverty

Dynamic Aspects of Earnings Mobility

This paper proposes an econometric methodology to deal with life cycle earnings and mobility among discrete earnings classes. First, we use panel data on male log earnings to estimate an earnings function with permanent and serially correlated transitory components due to both measured and unmeasured variables. Assuming that the error components are normally distributed, we develop statements for the probability that an individual's earnings will fall into a particular but arbitrary time sequence of poverty states. Using these statements, we illustrate the implications of our earnings model for poverty dynamics and compare our approach to Markov chain models of income mobility.

Poverty, inequality and environmental resources: quantitative analysis of rural households

Rural households have been suspected to rely heavily on goods and services freely provided by environmental resources. However, there has been no adequate quantitative analysis of this issue due to a lack of appropriate household data sets encompassing economic and environmental data. We use a purpose-collected 213 household data set from rural Zimbabwe to investigate the impact of incorporating this missing source of household welfare on quantitative analysis of the measurement and causes of rural poverty and inequality. Incorporating environmental income in the household accounts results in dramatic and significant reductions in measured poverty, 50 percent or more over income as conventionally measured. Environmental income is also strongly and significantly equalising, bringing about roughly a 30 percent reduction in measured inequality. So access to commons resources has a substantial impact on poverty and inequality. However, including the value of environmental utilisations leaves analysis of the causes of rural differentiation unchanged: these resources do not alleviate the poverty trap.

Nickel and Dimed German Style: The Working Poor in Germany

Using data from the German SOEP, this paper analyses whether there have been (a) any significant changes in poverty rates and poverty intensities before and after the Hartz IV reforms and (b) whether there have been observable changes in the effect of employment in reducing the threat or intensity of poverty. Using multivariate analyses we can find no evidence of increases in poverty rates comparing the time period 2002–2004 with that of 2005–2006. Further we find no change in the effect of employment in reducing the probability and intensity of poverty during this time period. The “working poor” phenomenon in Germany remains relatively small and statistically unchanged by the Hartz reforms.Income distribution, unemployment, poverty

Macro Determinants of Individual Income Poverty in 93 Regions of Europe

The analysis of the at-risk-of-poverty determinants can be improved by taking into account factors at macro (regional) level. This hypothesis has already been made in previous research, at country-level, on cross-sectional data. We use longitudinal data in this analysis in order to get more precise estimated parameters, and we test if the regional unemployment rate and the regional GDP affect the individual at-risk-of-poverty status. The countries taken into account are those present in the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset.income poverty; EU-SILC; multilevel models; longitudinal data

Income distribution and the effect of the financial crisis on the Italian and Spanish labour markets

This paper aims at estimating the costs of the current crisis in terms of income distribution and poverty taking into account by means of microsimulation techniques - the change in employment status in Spain and Italy. We construct a micro simulation analysis on the impact of the crisis on unemployment, household income, and inequality using the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Surveys, and Labour Force Surveys data for Italy and Spain with reference to different types of households. We consider the effect of joblessness on household income and well-being and the impact of different systems of unemployment benefit on unemployment sustainability. Our focus is not only on the pecuniary dimension of well-being, but also in terms of the costs of limited access to medical and dental treatment and analyses

Determinant Factors of the Household Poverty Probability: Study on Household around the Taman Nasional Kerinci Sebelat (TNKS) Lebong Regency

This research aims to determine the factors that influence the probability of occurrence of poverty of households around Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat (Kerinci Sebelat National Park (TNKS) Lebong District. The location of this research selected purposively by categorizing the 6 villages into 3 typologies, namely, Sawah dominance, plantation Dominance, and rice fields and plantation. From each village, 20 households as respondents were selected randomly, so the total respondents were 120 households. Sayogjo poverty line was applied to determine household poverty status. In examining the factors that affect the probability of the household poverty, a logit model is applied. From the analysis, land area ownership is the main factor influencing the occurrence probability of poverty of households, while education level, number of family dependents, and household head age are not