Attributes Inequality in Multidimensional Poverty MeasuresFuzzy Modeling

Poverty is recently considered to be a multidimensional one. That is to say the poor can suffer multiple disadvantages at the same time. This paper aims to further develop and refine the multidimensional poverty measure using Fuzzy Sets Theory (FST). The application of FST starts with the choice of membership functions and the rules to manipulate to integrate attributes inequality in multidimensional poverty measure. An application based on individual well-being data from Tunisian households in 2015 is presented to illustrate use proposed concepts. JEL classification: P46; I32; D81; C00;

The impact of foreign capital inflows on poverty in Vietnam: An empirical investigation

This study investigates the impact of foreign capital inflows on poverty in Vietnam, using annual time series data from 1990 to 2018. The study was motivated by the need to establish if burgeoning foreign capital inflows in Vietnam can support the poverty alleviation agenda. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and external debt were used as proxies for foreign capital inflows; and infant mortality rate, Human Development Index (HDI) and household consumption expenditure were used as poverty proxies. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the study found foreign direct investment to reduce poverty in the short run and long run when household consumption expenditure was used as a poverty measure. However, the study found FDI to worsen poverty in the short run when infant mortality rate and HDI were used as poverty proxies. The study found external debt to have poverty mitigating effect in the short run regardless of the poverty measure used and in the long run only when household consumption expenditure was used as a poverty measure.

Work Hours Instability and Child Poverty: Response of the Safety-Net Programs

This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to investigate how intra-year caregiver work-hours volatility is related to child poverty, measured through both the official poverty measure (OPM) and the supplemental poverty measure (SPM). I further assess varying degrees of buffering effects of cash benefits, in-kind benefits, and tax transfers on income in the context of work-hours volatility. Results indicate that Black and Hispanic children, as well as those living with unpartnered single mothers, faced substantially higher variability in household market hours worked. Hispanic children experienced not only greater volatility in their caregivers’ work hours, but also higher poverty levels, even after taking government programs into account. I find that a 10 percent increase in intra-year hours volatility is linked to roughly a 2 percent and 1.6 percent increase in OPM and SPM child poverty, respectively. In-kind benefits are more effective in buffering household income declines resulting from unstable caregiver work hours, followed by tax transfers and cash benefits, which each offer somewhat less of a buffering effect. The effectiveness of near-cash benefits is particularly salient among Black children and children of unpartnered single mothers. Hispanic children also benefited from these transfers’ compensating effects, but to a lesser degree. These results provide new evidence to inform public policy discussions surrounding the best ways to help socioeconomically disadvantaged families to retain benefits and smooth their income in the face of frequent variation in work hours and, thus, earnings.

Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty within Urban Locals and Rural Migrants in China using Inequality-Sensitive Poverty Measures

This paper measures monetary and non-monetary poverty among urban local and rural migrant groups in the urban labour market in China, capturing incidence, intensity and inequality of poverty. To measure non-monetary poverty in multiple dimensions the chosen indicators are education, health status, health insurance and pension insurance. Using data from the China Household Income Project for the years 2002, 2007, and 2013, it appears that although monetary poverty in both groups is low, migrants have higher levels of non-monetary deprivation for various levels of poverty thresholds. Compared to the urban locals, the rural migrants experienced relatively less severe poverty than mild or moderate poverty during 2002 and 2007. Our Shapley decomposition exercise on non-monetary poverty measure reveals that the incidence contributes most to the urban-migrant gap, and the contribution of intensity is higher than that of inequality. The most important factors in multidimensional poverty for both groups are health insurance and pension insurance in all years. Our logit analysis shows that the effects of demographic characteristics, level of contract, occupation, and the industry have different impacts on these two groups.

Leaving No One Behind: An Individual-Level Approach to Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Botswana

The Leave No One Behind principle is at the core of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and acknowledges that poverty is multidimensional and should be examined at individual level. Notwithstanding this, most empirical studies use the household as the unit of analysis for multidimensional poverty measurement. However, estimation of poverty levels at household-level underestimates poverty levels of the society and does not capture intra-household inequalities. The objective of this study is two-fold: (1) developing a country-specific individual-level multidimensional poverty measure; and (2) providing estimates of multidimensional poverty for Botswana. This study contributes to the limited literature on individual-level multidimensional poverty measurement. Empirically, this study offers the first attempt to estimate a nationally relevant and context-specific multidimensional poverty index for Botswana using the individual as a unit of analysis. The results reveal that an estimated 46.2% of individuals are considered multidimensionally poor based on individual-level analysis. This figure is higher than the household-level estimate of 36.5%, which indicates that using the household as a unit of analysis leads to underestimating poverty levels in the society. The results show that on average, the multidimensionally poor are deprived in 47.4% of all indicators under consideration. This finding indicates that multidimensional poverty intensity is also a considerable concern in Botswana. These findings warrant policy interventions.

Stochastic dominance rankings of consumption expenditure amongst arable crop farming households in Delta State, Nigeria

Finessing the question on household settlement choice is to enquire the income/consumption expenditure distribution that either makes her better-off or worse-off. Using 430 household-level micro-data from a three-stage sampling procedure, the study ranked consumption expenditure by household attributes in Delta state, Nigeria on axiomatic poverty measure. Results showed that household heads in the widowed and 0<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤20 years categories in Delta-North first-order stochastically dominated Delta-South (𝑁≻𝑠=1𝑆), 20<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤40 years household heads in 𝑆≻𝑠=1𝐶 and 𝑁≻𝑠=1𝐶, household heads in the widowed, vocational education holder and 0<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤20 years, 20<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤40 years and 𝑎𝑔𝑒>60 years categories in 𝑁≻𝑠=1𝐶, while household heads in the vocational education holder, 0<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤20 years, 20<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤40 years and 𝑎𝑔𝑒>60 years categories in 𝑆≻𝑠=1𝐶. Household heads in the female, single, medium household-size, tertiary education holder and 0<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤20 years categories in 𝑁≻𝑠=2𝑆 and 𝑁≻𝑠=3𝑆. Household heads in the single, medium-size, 20<𝑎𝑔𝑒≤40 years and tertiary education holder categories in 𝑁≻𝑠=2𝐶 and 𝑁≻𝑠=3𝐶. Household heads in the separated spouse and small household-size categories in 𝐶≻𝑠=2𝑁 and 𝐶≻𝑠=3𝑁 while household heads that are in the single category in 𝐶≻𝑠=2𝑆 and 𝐶≻𝑠=3𝑆. There is, generally, no stochastic dominance between pairwise comparisons by district in the state, in terms of consumption expenditure, except by other household attributes.

Unequal From the Start? Poverty Across Immigrant Generations of Hispanic Children

Recent cohorts of U.S. children increasingly consist of immigrants or the immediate descendants of immigrants, a demographic shift that has been implicated in high rates of child poverty. Analyzing data from the 2014–2018 Current Population Survey and using the U.S. Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, we describe differences in child poverty rates across immigrant generations and assess how these disparities are rooted in generational differences in the prevalence and impact of key poverty risk factors. Our estimates show that poverty rates among Hispanic children are very high, particularly among first-generation children and second-generation children with two foreign-born parents. Low family employment is the most significant risk factor for poverty, but the prevalence of this risk varies little across immigrant generations. Differences in parental education account for the greatest share of observed intergenerational disparities in child poverty. Supplemental comparisons with third+-generation non-Hispanic White children underscore the disadvantages faced by all Hispanic children, highlighting the continued salience of race and ethnicity within the U.S. stratification system. Understanding the role of immigrant generation vis-à-vis other dimensions of inequality has significant policy implications given that America's population continues to grow more diverse along multiple social axes.

The Extra Costs Associated With Living With a Disability in the United States

People with disabilities encounter many financial expenses that those without disabilities do not incur. In this article, we provide estimates of the extra costs associated with living with a disability in the United States. Drawing on four nationally representative surveys, we estimate that a household containing an adult with a work disability requires, on average, 29% more income (or an additional $18,322 a year for a household at the median income level) to obtain the same standard of living as a comparable household without a member with a disability. Single adults with disabilities are estimated to have higher costs than those with disabilities who are married, and adults with cognitive impairments are estimated to have higher costs compared to those with other kinds of impairments. We further calculate the federal poverty rate for households that include adults with disabilities adjusted for the direct additional costs of disability. The rate rises from 24% to 35% after adjusting for the extra costs of disability, which would result in an estimated 2.2 million more people with disabilities counted as poor. This suggests that the official poverty measure in the United States substantially underestimates the degree of deprivation experienced by people with disabilities.

Subjective satisfaction and objective electricity poverty reduction in Vietnam, 2008–2018

PurposeThe authors estimate the reduction of electricity poverty in Vietnam. The essential argument is that human development is about subjective feeling as much as technology and income.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a self-reported satisfaction indicator as complementary to objective indicators based on national household surveys from 2008 to 2018.FindingsIn 2010, the fraction of households with access to electricity was over 96%. However, over 24% declared their electricity use did not meet their needs. Since 2014, the satisfaction rate is around 97%, even if 25% of the households used less than 50 kWh/month. Today there is electricity for all in Vietnam, but electricity bills weigh more and more in the budget of households.Practical implicationsThe subjective energy poverty measure allows better international statistics: unlike poverty or needs-based criteria, self-assessed satisfaction of needs compares across income levels and climates.Social implicationsInequalities in electricity use among Vietnamese households decreased during the 2008–2018 period, but are not greater than inequalities in income, contrary to the findings of Son and Yoon (2020).Originality/valueEngineering and econometric objectivist approaches dominate the literature on sustainability monitoring. Out of 232 sustainable development goal (SDG) indicators, only two are subjective. Yet the findings show that subjective indicators tell a different part of the story. Access is not grid building, but the meaningful provision of electricity to satisfy the needs.