Do Income Surveys Overestimate Poverty in Western Europe? Evidence from a Comparison with Institutional Frameworks

Comparative poverty research flourishes,especially since comparable income data areeasily available through the Luxembourg IncomeStudy. However, widely-used income surveyssuffer from a number of methodological pitfallsfor comparative poverty research. This researchreport uses the data available in theLuxembourg Income Study for three countries –Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom – toexemplify the limited comparability ofwidely-used income data used in povertyresearch. In a simple simulation exercise,entitlements to means-tested benefits areimputed for each household in the sample, basedon the institutional regulations in eachcountry. Compared to actual poverty rates inthe original sample, imputed poverty rates aremarkedly smaller, if not reduced to zero. Evenif one accounts for an incomplete take-up ofbenefits, a large gap between actual andsimulated poverty rates still remains, largelycaused by problems in survey design. The paperconcludes with a number of recommendations forimproving income surveys from the perspectiveof comparative poverty research.     

Time and Money: A New Look at Poverty and the Barriers to Physical Activity in Canada

The relationship between time, money, and regular participation in physical activities, especially at the intensities and durations required to improve one’s health, is an important public health and social policy issue. The objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of the extent to which income poverty and time poverty act as barriers to regular participation in moderate or higher intensity physical activities. This study uses Canadian time use data collected in 2005 in order to measure income poverty, time poverty, and active living. Objective measures of physical activity engagement (participation rates, daily occurrences, and daily time budgets) are used to explore differences between the rich and poor categories of both income and time wealth. The income and time wealth categories are corroborated using subjective assessments of stress and perceived barriers to regular participation in sports. The results illustrate the multidimensional nature of poverty, but from a public health and social policy perspective, time poverty may be more important than income poverty as a barrier to regular physical activity engagement.     

Material Deprivation and Working Poor in Hong Kong

In-work poverty is a growing problem in many developed economies. In Hong Kong, there were 200,700 working poor households in 2016, and approximately half of the total poor population in Hong Kong was living in those working poor households. A growing body of literature has examined the problem of the working poor, but most studies have used relative income as a measure of poverty. In this paper, we adopt the material deprivation approach for assessing the poverty situation of in-work poverty households in Hong Kong. We have interviewed 3565 workers in Hong Kong during a survey conduct in 2016. We compare the results of the material deprivation approach with those of the income poverty approach and evaluate the adequacy of the official income poverty line in gauging the situation of in-work poverty. Our findings reinforce existing studies indicating that deprivation offers an important complement to the income poverty line in poverty analysis. Our results show that there is a moderate overlap between workers identified as poor by the deprivation approach and by the income poverty line. And these two groups of workers have very different profiles. The results provide important policy implications for alleviating poverty among the working poor in Hong Kong.

     

Differences Between Household Income from Surveys and Registers and How These Affect the Poverty Headcount: Evidence from the Austrian SILC

We take advantage of the fact that for the Austrian SILC 2008–2011, two data sources are available in parallel for the same households: register-based and survey-based income data. Thus, we aim to explain which households tend to under- or over-report their household income by estimating multinomial logit and OLS models with covariates referring to the interview situation, employment status and socio-demographic household characteristics. Furthermore, we analyze source-specific differences in the distribution of household income and how these differences affect aggregate poverty indicators based on household income. The analysis reveals an increase in the cross-sectional poverty rates for 2008–2011 and the longitudinal poverty rate if register data rather than survey data are used. These changes in the poverty rate are mainly driven by differences in employment income rather than sampling weights and other income components. Regression results show a pattern of mean-reverting errors when comparing household income between the two data sources. Furthermore, differences between data sources for both under-reporting and over-reporting slightly decrease with the number of panel waves in which a household participated. Among the other variables analyzed that are related to the interview situation (mode, proxy, interview month), only the number of proxy interviews was (weakly) positively correlated with the difference between data sources, although this outcome was not robust over different model specifications.     

关于中国贫困的动态多维度研究

文章利用中国健康与营养调查8个调查年度的数据,基于能力方法的视角,选用收入、教育和生活质量3个维度,对中国的贫困状况进行了动态多维度考察,结果发现:(1)相对于单一的收入贫困,多维贫困程度更为严重、波动性更大,贫困人口应对外部冲击的脆弱性明显,其中教育贫困尤其严重。(2)尽管农村与城市之间收入贫困趋于收敛,但近年来农村多维贫困对全国的贡献度高达80%以上,城乡间多维贫困差异有不断扩大的趋势。(3)指标等权重情形下的多维贫困随时间推移呈平稳快速下降态势,其中生活质量改善对多维贫困下降的贡献度最大。(4)就影响多维贫困的外在环境因素而言,东部地区的多维贫困下降明显快于其他地区,家庭中劳动力及户主的特征也对多维贫困产生显著影响。文章探讨了多维贫困的致因和消除多维贫困的政策选择。     

When Twenty-Four Hours is not Enough: Time Poverty of Working Parents

Individuals can be money poor, time poor or both. While income is the most used indicator of poverty, broader indexes including non-monetary aspects of deprivation have been proposed and measured. As one such measure, our study focuses on the element of deprivation arising from the time deficit of many working people. The usual poverty threshold is calculated as the amount of income to buy the minimum required goods and services from the market. This minimum required purchase is greater for these people since they have less time than the average person to produce some goods and services for themselves at home. So, they need money to buy these in the market in order to maintain the same consumption. The income standard must be supplemented to adequately measure actual poverty. Time use data make it possible to establish time requirements and time availability and provide a measure of time poverty. Using Canadian GSS 1998 data, and building on the work of Vickery (1977, ‚The time poor: A new look at poverty’, The Journal of Human Resources 12(1), pp. 27-48) and of Douthitt (1993, ‚The inclusion of time availability in Canadian poverty measures’, Time-Use Methodology: Toward Consensus (ISTAT, Roma), pp. 83–91), and our own previous study, we estimate time-adjusted poverty thresholds and rates for single and dual parent Canadian families. As expected, we have found high incidence of time deficit among the employed single parents with children. We make a case for the acceptance of a redefined poverty standard for such time-deprived groups.     

A Measure Whose Time has Come: Formalizing Time Poverty

Poverty remains a primary public policy issue, and a large literature has discussed the limitations of an income poverty measure. Using income as an indicator of poverty is a helpful simplification designed to capture ability to meet consumption needs. We argue that time is a basic economic resource allocated to create well-being along with income. Time is a scarce resource that individuals and households must allocate to produce goods, obtain services, and pursue rest and relaxation. Time poverty has been proposed as a complement to income poverty, yet it remains a relatively unknown measure in both policy and research spheres. The many ways time poverty is conceptualized and measured across studies has limited its adoption. To help familiarize readers with time poverty, we apply basic tenets of income poverty measurement to time. We conduct a survey of the theoretical and empirical literature discussing similarities, differences, and the pros and cons of different approaches to time poverty. In particular, inconsistent definition and categorization of necessary and discretionary time has been a barrier to the transparent application of time poverty in the literature, and we outline guidance on defining necessary and discretionary time for future studies. Finally, we outline future research directions for time poverty.     

The Changes of Cost of Children for Turkey by Using Income-Dependent Equivalence Scales

This study aims to estimate the cost of children in Turkey by using equivalence scale approach for different income levels and suggests a new commodity composition for Muslim countries. We used 2003, 2007 and 2014 household budget survey micro data set. According to the calculations of Engel equivalence scales, the cost of children decreases from 2003 to 2014 in Turkey. Since the data of 2007 is determined as reasonable consumption behaviours of Turkish households, the inequality and poverty researches can use equivalence scales calculations of 2007. If anyone wants to estimate Rothbarth equivalence scales for a Muslim country, using of “adult goods” which is defined as “expenditures of alcohol, tobacco, adult cloths and adult shoes” in literature would not be suitable. This study suggests “a new commodity group” which is “furnishing and communication”. The Engel model estimations are significant for households who are at the middle and high income level whereas the results of Rothbarth model estimations are found as significant for low and middle income groups. As a result, we recommend to use equivalence scales estimations’ results for middle income groups in the inequality and poverty researches, since this group is free from irregular expenditure behaviors and gives significant estimations for both models.     

Subjective Poverty and Its Relation to Objective Poverty Concepts in Hungary

The paper analyzes subjective poverty in Hungary and compares it to the objective poverty concepts. Subjective poverty is defined by examining who people consider to be poor. Based on the Easterlin paradox, the initial hypothesis states that subjective and absolute poverty concepts are highly correlated. Taking into account that Hungary is a developed country, subjective well-being is supposed to be associated not only with absolute, but also with relative deprivation. The methods of systematic data collection are used to collect data about the belief of the population. The paper concludes that low income level, Roma descent, entitlement to social supports and unemployment are the items thought to be most related to poverty by the informants. It proves that subjective poverty is a multidimensional concept. It also concludes that absolute and relative poverty thresholds coincide with the subjective one. It implies that increasing the absolute income level of individuals may not be enough to improve their subjective wellbeing as they are also concerned with their relative income position.     

Dynamics of Asset Poverty in South Korea

Studies of economic insecurity tend to focus on changes in incomes and transitions in and out of income poverty. Yet family economic conditions are shaped by more than just income. Levels of assets and wealth, and changes in these over time also play a role. To identify which groups of the poor have been structurally trapped in poverty over time, using the Korean Welfare Panel Study, we examined the dynamics of asset poverty from 2005 to 2014. We defined three asset poverty lines by operationalizing assets as resources for either future consumption or development. Findings show that asset poverty experience in a previous year significantly increased the probability to incur asset poverty by 5–12% for all analysis samples. In addition, the probability of incurring asset poverty decreased with home ownership, higher disposable income, and greater diversification of the household portfolio. Our findings suggest that the asset poor are likely to fall into structural and persistent poverty over time, and an asset-building approach is needed to improve the asset poverty status of households in South Korea.

     

贫困地区劳动力迁移、农户收入与贫困的缓解——基于新疆农户面板数据的实证分析

本文基于新疆30个贫困县、3000个农户、2008-2010年的微观面板数据,在控制了家庭规模、劳动力数量等家庭特征变量和粮食播种面积等村庄特征变量的前提下．运用固定效应法与工具变量法分别考察了劳动力迁移规模、迁移方式与迁移区位对家庭收入的影响．并进一步分析了劳动力迁移对贫困的缓解效应。回归结果表明：劳动力迁移规模虽然对农户农业收入有负向影响．但显著提高了农户人均收入与利他性收入：自发性迁移与政府组织性迁移方式均能显著提高农户收入,且自发性迁移的作用更强;省内县外迁移对农户收入的提高最为显著,其次为县内乡外迁移．省外迁移不影响农户收入：劳动力迁移规模提高了中等收入农户的收入水平。但对贫困户的贫困无缓解效应．也不影响富裕户的收入水平。     

The Rich and the Poor: The Construction of an Affluence Line from the Poverty Line

The paper proposes a simple methodology to estimate an affluence line that depends on the knowledge of the income distribution and the poverty line for a given population. The idea that poverty is morally unacceptable and can be eradicated through redistribution of wealth provides the grounds for the methodology. The line is defined as the value that delimitates the aggregated income required to eradicate poverty by the way of transfers from the rich to the poor. I estimate an affluence line using Brazilian 1999 National Household Survey data and briefly discuss the results.     

Incidence, Depth and Severity of Children in Poverty

Recently, the first ever estimate of the number of children living poverty in developing countries was undertaken. The incidence of child poverty was estimated by establishing how many children suffer severe deprivation in at least one out of seven indicators which are internationally recognized as their rights as well as constitutive of poverty. This is a major step forward in the analysis of poverty. In this paper, we generalize these findings on the incidence of children living in poverty by exploring how to estimate the depth and severity of child poverty. Two countries can have the same proportion of children living in poverty, however, the actual plight of children could be very different depending on how many deprivations, on average, children suffer. In addition, even if they suffer from the same average number of deprivations, these deprivation could be the same for all children or be very unevenly distributed. We show how these considerations can be used to estimate the depth and severity of poverty. We use regional data to provide applied examples of this methodology. The method proposed in this paper is similar to the one used to estimate the incidence, depth and severity of income poverty. The paper also offers some possible generalizations and ways forward for future research.     

Poverty,Inequality and Deprivation in South Africa: An Analysis of the 1993 SALDRU Survey

This paper analyses poverty and inequality in South Africa based on data from a comprehensive multi-purpose household survey undertaken in 1993 to provide baseline statistics on poverty and its determinants to the new government. The paper shows that South Africa has among the highest levels of income inequality in the world and compares poorly in most social indicators to countries with similar income levels. Much of the poverty in the country is a direct result of apartheid policies that denied equal access to education, employment, services, and resources to the black population of the country. As a result, poverty has a very strong racial dimension with poverty concentrated among the African population. In addition, poverty is much higher in rural areas, and particularly high in the former homelands. Poverty among female-headed households and among children is also higher than average. Moreover, poverty is closely related to poor education and lack of employment. The poor suffer from lack of access to education, quality health care, basic infrastructure, transport, are heavily indebted, have little access to productive resources, and are heavily dependent on remittances and social transfers, particularly social pensions and disability grants. The paper uses an income-based definition of poverty for most of the analysis. In addition, it develops a broad-based index of deprivation including income, employment, wealth, access to services, health, education, and perceptions of satisfaction as its components. While on average the two indicators correspond fairly closely, the income poverty measure misses a considerable number of people who are severely deprived in many of the non-income measures of well-being. This group of severely deprived not identified by the income poverty measure consists predominantly of Africans living in rural areas, concentrated particularly in the province of KwaZulu/Natal.     

Determinants of Subjective Well-Being and Poverty in Rural Pakistan: A Micro-Level Study

Drawing on unique survey data for rural Pakistan, we investigate the impact of socio-demographic factors on happiness index with particular emphasis on subjective well-being measurement to evaluate poverty and its different components. The data elicits information on overall well-being in terms of household’s happiness with the current socio-economic status. We estimate a happiness model to explore to what extent a well-being perspective adds to our understanding of poverty. We find that the well-being approach closely depicts the idea of well-being poverty in terms of the level education, health and income which matter significantly. Moreover unlike developed nations where children have a negative impact on overall well-being, this study suggests a positive impact on well-being and poverty. As studies employing good data from developing countries are rare, this paper can potentially make a good contribution to the existing happiness literature, with special reference to Pakistan.     

Gender and Multidimensional Poverty in South Africa: Applying the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

Recent work has shown that the gender gap in income poverty has widened in post-apartheid South Africa even though overall poverty levels have declined. One of the main criticisms of money-metric studies of gendered poverty differences is that income is only one dimension of poverty and that other measures of welfare may better reflect the relative well-being of women and female-headed households. This article presents a multidimensional approach to measuring the gender poverty gap in post-apartheid South Africa. Using data from the 2008 wave of the South African National Income Dynamic Study, the internationally comparable multidimensional poverty index (the MPI) is used to estimate gender differences in a number of different achievements. The findings suggest that the multidimensional gender poverty gap is similar to the poverty gap measured by the conventional money-metric approach at several national poverty lines. However, the MPI poverty differential between female- and male-headed households is slightly narrower than the income poverty gap between these two household types. In order to explore these findings further, the paper decomposes the components of multidimensional poverty by gender and for both female- and male-headed households. The paper concludes by considering how greater investments in health care delivery and in basic services, particularly in rural areas, may yield progress towards gender equality.     

中国城乡弱相对贫困测算及时空演变：2012—2018

相对贫困的识别和测算是瞄准贫困人口和制定减贫政策的基础,但常用于识别相对贫困人口的比例收入法和测度相对贫困程度的FGT指数在理论基础、比例设定和贫困性质方面遭到质疑。采用基于社会融入成本理论的弱相对贫困人口识别方法,及与弱相对贫困线相适应的分层可加综合贫困指数,且考虑与现阶段我国绝对贫困线衔接性及国际标准的可比性,使用2012—2018年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据估计了中国城乡收入(消费)弱相对贫困线,并测算分析了中国城乡收入(消费)弱相对贫困程度及时空演变特征。研究表明,基于弱相对贫困线构造的综合贫困指数兼顾绝对贫困和相对贫困,可以避免传统FGT指数分别测度绝对贫困和相对贫困时动态变化趋势出现分歧的问题,可更为直观地综合评估经济增长和扶贫政策的减贫效应。无论城乡,尽管不平等导致相对贫困始终处于高位水平,但绝对贫困更大的下降幅度使得中国收入(消费)弱相对贫困程度仍呈稳健下降趋势。从社会融入成本角度出发,建议未来考虑住房成本和子女养育成本,分家庭类型进一步细化弱相对贫困标准。本研究有助于进一步分类瞄准弱相对贫困人口,监测弱相对贫困程度演变并综合评估减贫效应。     

The Association Between Generalized Trust and Physical and Psychological Health Across Societies

This paper estimates a Multidimensional Poverty Index for Gauteng province of South Africa. The Alkire–Forster method is applied on Quality of Life survey data for 2011 and 2013 which offer an excellent opportunity for estimating poverty at smaller geographical areas. The results suggest that the Multidimensional Poverty Index for Gauteng is low but varies markedly by municipality and by ward, as well as across income groups. Not only are low income households more likely to be multidimensionally poor, they also suffer from higher intensities of poverty. Multidimensional poverty is highest in areas of low economic activity located on the edges of the province. However, pockets of multidimensional poverty do prevail even in better performing municipalities. Government, at all spheres, needs to devise policies that channel investments into lagging areas and avoid approaches that are indifferent to the heterogeneities that exist across localised geographical extents.     

Assessing How Participators Combine Acts in Their “Political Tool Kits”: A Person-Centered Measurement Approach for Analyzing Citizen Participation

The aim of this paper is to highlight some key issues and challenges in the analysis of poverty at the local level using survey data. In the last years there was a worldwide increase in the demand for poverty and living conditions estimates at the local level, since these quantities can help in planning local policies aimed at decreasing poverty and social exclusion. In many countries various sample surveys on income and living conditions are currently conducted, but their sample size is not enough to obtain reliable estimates at local level. When this happens, small area estimation (SAE) methods can be used. In this paper, a SAE model is used to compute the mean household equivalised income and the head count ratio for the 57 Labor Local Systems of the Tuscany region in Italy for the year 2011. The caveats of the analysis of poverty at the local level using small area methods are many, and some are still not so well explored in the literature, starting from the definition of the target indicators to the relevant dimensions of their measurement. We suggest in this paper that together with the universally recognized multidimensional, longitudinal and local dimensions of poverty, a new dimension must be considered: the price dimension, which should take into account local purchasing power parities to correctly compare the poverty indicators based on income measures.     

Multi-Dimensional Deprivation in the U.S.

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of multidimensional deprivation in the U.S. since the Great Recession, from 2008 to 2013. We estimate a Multidimensional Deprivation Index by compiling individual level data on several well-being dimensions from the American Community Survey. Our results indicate that the proportion of the population that is multidimensional deprived averages about 15 percent, which exceeds the prevalence of official income poverty. Lack of education, severe housing burden and lack of health insurance were some of the dimensions in which Americans were most deprived in. Though deprivation increased during the recession, it trended towards a decline between 2010 and 2013. Unlike the official and the supplemental poverty measure which did not show any decline, the deprivation index better reflects the economic recovery since the recession. Overall, the prevalence of deprivation was higher in the southern and the western states and among the Asian and the Hispanic population. Importantly, there was not much overlap between individuals who were income poor and those who were multidimensional deprived. In fact, almost 30 % of individuals with incomes slightly above the poverty threshold experienced multiple deprivations. Our analysis underscores the need to look beyond income based poverty statistics in order to fully realize the impact of the recession on individuals’ well-being.