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。     

Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries

This paper studies multidimensional poverty for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay for the period 1992–2006. The approach overcomes the limitations of the two traditional methods of poverty analysis in Latin America (income-based and unmet basic needs) by combining income with five other dimensions: school attendance for children, education of the household head, sanitation, water and shelter. The results allow a fuller understanding of the evolution of poverty in the selected countries. Over the study period, El Salvador, Brazil, Mexico and Chile experienced significant reductions in multidimensional poverty. In contrast, in urban Uruguay there was a small reduction in multidimensional poverty, while in urban Argentina the estimates did not change significantly. El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico, and rural areas of Chile display significantly higher and more simultaneous deprivations than urban areas of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In all countries, deprivation in access to proper sanitation and education of the household head are the highest contributors to overall multidimensional poverty.     

Disparities in the Level of Poverty in China: Evidence from China Family Panel Studies 2010

This paper uses the Dual Cut-offs Approach to measure multidimensional poverty in China at the national, rural-urban, regional and provincial levels using the China Family Panel Studies data from 2010. Five dimensions and thirteen indicators are considered for the enumeration of poverty. It is observed that irrespective of cut-offs and weights, rural poverty in China is three to nine times of urban poverty. Social insurance, toilet and cooking fuel are the major indicators contributing to both rural and urban poverty. More urban households in the Western region are deprived, but urban poor households are deprived in more indicators in the Central region, and some Eastern provinces are poorer than some of the Central provinces. Furthermore, the paper identifies the provinces that contribute most to national poverty levels and finds the sources of poverty in those provinces.     

A Different Perspective on Poverty in Lao PDR: Multidimensional Poverty in Lao PDR for the Years 2002/2003 and 2007/2008

This paper presents an indicator for measuring multidimensional poverty in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic applying the Alkire–Foster methodology to the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey 2002/2003 and 2007/2008. We calculated a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that includes three dimensions: education, health, and standard of living. Making use of the MPI’s decomposability, we analyse how much each of the different dimensions and its respective indicators contribute to the overall MPI. We find a marked reduction in the multidimensional poverty headcount ratio over the study period, regardless of how the indicators are weighted or how the deprivation and poverty cut-offs are set. This reduction is based on improvements regarding all indicators except cooking fuel and nutrition. We observe no significant reduction in the intensity of poverty, however; there are wide disparities between the country’s regions and between urban and rural areas. The proportion of poor people in rural areas is more than twice as high as that in urban areas. By complementing the traditional income-based poverty measure, we hope to provide useful information that can support knowledge-based decision-making for poverty alleviation.     

Uneven dynamics and regional disparity of multidimensional poverty in China

Qualifying the official minimum of “Two no worries and three guarantees” (certainty of food and clothing, guarantees of compulsory education, basic medical care, and housing) is essential to evaluate the targeted poverty alleviation program since 2013 in China. Using the poverty monitoring dataset and the multidimensional poverty indicator system, the uneven dynamics and regional disparity of multidimensional poverty and its driving factors in poverty-stricken areas in China during 2014–2018 are explored in this paper. The incidence rate of multidimensional poverty was reduced by 61.72%, and the poverty reduction rate within the six dimensions ranged from 52.29 to 76.36%. Multidimensional poverty and its six dimensions displayed narrowing regional disparity. Impoverished and moderately poor areas shrank, whereas low-poverty areas expanded. All 22 provinces have become low-poverty areas in 2018. The contribution of each dimension to multidimensional poverty varies for different types at different stages. Income and expenditure contribute the most to poverty status, followed by transportation, housing conditions, education, communication, and medical care and health. The contribution of each indicator among different dimensions varied with different trends from 2014 to2018. This paper helps incorporate the official minimums of “Two no worries and three guarantees” into a more operational evaluation system to promote sustainable policies for governments at all levels by 2020 and beyond, as well as provide valuable references for poverty alleviation in other developing countries worldwide.

     

Tracking Poverty Reduction in Bhutan: Income Deprivation Alongside Deprivation in Other Sources of Happiness

This paper analyses poverty reduction in Bhutan between two points in time—2003 and 2007—from a multidimensional perspective. The measures estimated include consumption expenditure as well as other indicators which are directly (when possible) or indirectly associated to valuable functionings, namely, health, education, access to electricity, safe water, improved sanitation, enough room per person in dwelling, access to roads and land ownership. Interestingly, most of these indicators have been identified as sources of happiness in the 2007 Gross National Happiness Survey. Twelve different measures are estimated with a variety of values for the different parameters involved for robustness analysis. Also, estimates are bootstrapped creating 95 % confidence intervals. We find that over the study period there was an unambiguous reduction in multidimensional poverty regardless of the indicators’ weights, deprivation cutoffs and identification criterion of the poor. This reduction was mainly led by a reduction in the proportion of the poor which was accompanied by a reduction in the intensity of poverty among those who were less intensively poor, although not among those who were more intensively poor. Rather than accomplishing this poverty reduction by improving achievements in one or two indicators, there were significant reductions in several deprivations, especially in access to roads, electricity, water, sanitation, and education. We also find that when income alone is used to target the poor, inclusion errors are marginal but exclusion errors are sizeable. Despite Bhutan’s significant progress, challenges remain as poverty is still high in rural areas. A multidimensional measure in the lines proposed in this paper can prove useful for monitoring poverty reduction, prioritizing groups and evaluating upon investment.     

Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty Among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa

Since the seminal work of Sen, poverty has been recognized as a multidimensional phenomenon. The recent availability of relevant databases renewed the interest in this approach. This paper estimates multidimensional poverty among women in fourteen Sub-Saharan African countries using the Alkire and Foster multidimensional poverty measures, whose identification method is based on a counting approach. Four dimensions are considered: assets, health, schooling and empowerment. The results show important differences in poverty among the countries of the sample. The multidimensional poverty estimates are compared with some alternative measures such as the Human Development Index, income poverty, asset poverty and the Gender-related Development Index. It is found that including additional dimensions into the analysis leads to country rankings different from those obtained with the mentioned four measures. Decompositions by geographical area and dimension indicate that rural areas are significantly poorer than urban ones and that a lack of schooling is, in general, the highest contributor to poverty. The paper also conducts robustness and sensitivity analyses of the multidimensional estimates with respect to the number of dimensions in which deprivation is required in order to be considered poor, as well as to the poverty lines within each dimension. Several cases of dominance between countries are found in the first robustness test.     

Multidimensional Poverty in Nicaragua: Are Female-Headed Households Better Off?

The recognition of poverty as a multidimensional concept has led to the development of more adequate tools for its identification. By allowing for subgroup and regional decompositions, those instruments are useful to allocate public action where most needed. This paper applies the Alkire and Foster (2011a) Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to study single-mother and biparental families in Nicaragua, modifying its original structure to match more closely with the country’s current structural problems. Using Nicaragua’s last Demographic and Health Survey (DHS 2011/2012), our multidimensional poverty figures contrast with the government’s national poverty line estimates, suggesting that income poverty overestimates the number of poor people. Thus, our MPI can help as a complement for traditional consumption poverty and Basic Needs analysis; even extending the exploration by using other official household surveys. On the other hand, multidimensional poverty analysis found poverty dominance of male-headed families over single-mother and female-headed biparental families, which serves to contradict the notion of women being more vulnerable than men. Within the MPI, the most important contributor was the Living Standards dimension, composed by indicators directly related to housing conditions, and the second most deprived dimension was Education. A strong policy implication that arises from our findings is the reduction of the urban–rural poverty gap. Specifically, our findings exalt the need for governmental policies directed to reduce Nicaragua’s housing and educational deficits as a priority, particularly in rural areas.     

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。     

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.     

Life Satisfaction of Adolescents in Hunan,China: Reliability and Validity of Chinese Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS)

The concept of poverty has gone beyond the monetary attributes to cover several dimensions directly influencing the level of individuals’ socio-economic status. Based on this methodological advancement, this study aims to approximate the deprivation of education, health and housing facilities to analyze the incidence of multidimensional poverty (MDP) at regional levels in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Findings revealed that the magnitude of MDP varies significantly across the regions due mainly to the variation in the deprivation levels of socio-economic aspects. Furthermore, the magnitude of MDP is higher in rural areas than urban areas in each region.     

Using VPI to Measure Poverty-Stricken Villages in China

Revealing the comprehensive poverty levels and spatial diversities of poverty-stricken villages is a prerequisite for “Entire-village Advancement” anti-poverty policy of China. In response, we build a multidimensional poverty assessment model from the perspective of spatial poverty, adopting VPI (village-level poverty index) to examine multiscale and multidimensional situations and characteristics of poverty-stricken villages in rural China, then adopting spatial geostatistics to explore their multidimensional and multiscale spatial point pattern distribution. Further, we also introduce LSE model to examine their poverty types. Our tests show that, Firstly, the validity and reliability of the VPI model can be justified in terms of village-level targeting ratio and policy-coverage ratio. Then, the poverty level of poverty-stricken villages follows a normal-right distribution, presenting an “olive” structure with a shape of “large middle, and small at two ends”, poverty levels and poverty sizes of different counties obviously increasing from east to west, and different classifications of counties also representing different poverty levels. On the other hand, there exists three kinds of multi-scale poverty clusters among different contiguous destitute areas, namely, clustering-randomness-dispersion, randomness-clustering and dispersion/randomness distribution. Villages with poverty type of three-factor dominance account for over 50 % of the total villages, their poverty are mainly caused by harsh geographical environment, disadvantaged production and living conditions, and poor labor forces. This research helps know well about the relationships among different villages from the multiscale and multidimensional views, so as to provide decision basis for optimal development and reorganization of the poverty-stricken villages in rural China, which is of vital practical significance to make overall arrangement of rural development-oriented poverty elimination and to boost new round of precise poverty elimination and new countryside construction.     

连片特困少数民族地区教育层次结构对农民收入增长的作用——以南疆三地州为例

连片特困少数民族农村地区是我国实现全面脱贫的攻坚区域,教育扶贫是彻底稳定脱贫的重要推手.以新疆南疆三地州少数民族农民微观调查数据为基础,通过明瑟分位数回归法,实证研究不同层级教育水平对少数民族贫困农民收入的影响.研究发现:由于南疆三地州少数民族和连片贫困的特殊性,不同层次教育对该区域少数民族农民收入的影响具有明显的差异性.其中,双语教育、高等教育、技能培训对收入增长的促进作用显著,初中教育和职业教育对收入影响不显著,职业教育处于"有功不明"的状态;而高中教育与收入增长呈现负相关关系,与高等教育的教育收益率显著为正形成悖论.因此,要完善连片特困少数民族地区教育结构,目前重中之重是全面普及高中教育,重视职业教育,跨出"教育门槛",解决教育的断崖式贫困问题.     

中国农村贫困居民收入流动性研究

通过多变量Prob it模型考察我国农村贫困居民的收入流动性。分析两期之间农村贫困的状态依赖性,探讨决定我国农村居民当期免于贫困的因素,研究发现:人力资本投资中的教育投资和健康投资的反贫困效果最好;从贫困的状态依赖性来看,我国农村低收入者没有陷入明显的持续贫困,收入流动性较强;农村女性收入状况逐年改善,婚姻状况有利于缓解贫困,国家公务员或者企业经理,政府机关、国有企事业单位性质的员工陷入贫困的概率更低,东部地区居民容易免于贫困;改革开放的制度变迁给农村居民带来收入变动的机遇,同时也增加了他们收入的不稳定性;回归结果对低收入门槛的定义比较敏感,有必要在收入分布的"绝对贫困"区域上方再划定一个"基本贫困"区域。     

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.     

教育投入与社会保障对城乡收入差距的联合影响

当前城乡收入差距扩大化趋势引起广泛关注。文章使用世代交叠模型研究公共教育和社会保障对收入分配的作用机制,在此基础上分析公共教育和社会保障对城乡收入差距的影响。研究发现,公共教育通过作用于教育投资、社会保障通过作用于有效家庭时间共同影响人力资本积累从而影响收入。一方面,数值模拟结果显示公共教育和社会保障的增加能够显著地增加收入;另一方面,结合中国城乡实际的实证研究结果显示,本应该起到调节和缩小城乡收入差距的公共教育和社会保障制度,并没有发挥其收入再分配的功能,反而形成了"逆向调节"的负效应,扩大了城乡收入差距,对此,文章通过理论与实证得出,缩小我国城乡人均教育投资和社会保障税率差距对缩小城乡收入差距具有重要的现实意义。     

Multidimensional Poverty in Mountainous Regions: Shan and Chin in Myanmar

Poverty is complex and multidimensional. People living in mountainous regions are vulnerable and more likely to experience multiple deprivation. However, few studies have addressed multidimensional poverty in mountainous regions. Using data from 4290 households of poverty and vulnerability assessment survey and the Alkire–Foster methodology, this paper estimate and decompose multidimensional poverty in the states of Shan and Chin in Myanmar. The multidimensional poverty is measured in five dimensions and a set of twelve indicators. Nearly half of the population in Shan and three-quarters in Chin were multidimensionally poor. The average intensity of poverty was 44% in Chin and 38% in Shan. The multidimensional poverty index was 0.33 in Chin and 0.19 in Shan. The level of multidimensional poverty in Chin was similar to that in of Sub-Saharan Africa. In Chin, 60% of the population was both multidimensionally poor and consumption poor, but in Shan, it was 20%. About 28% of the population in Shan and 15% in Chin were multidimensionally poor but not consumption poor. Deprivation in education accounts for one-third of the multidimensional poverty in Shan; while deprivation in health accounts for one-third of the multidimensional poverty in Chin. A higher proportion of multidimensionally poor had experienced shocks such as the death of a household member, agricultural loss, or death of livestock compared to the multidimensional non-poor. Multidimensional poverty was significantly higher for rural household, households with lower educational attainment, consumption poor and among those who lived in Chin. Poverty reduction programs require a holistic understanding of poverty and its different dimensions as well as the main contributing factors for effective planning and program implementation. Geographical targeting of poverty reduction program and larger investment in food, health, water, energy and education can reduce the extent of multidimensional poverty in Shan and Chin.     

"Struggling to Keep the Wolf from the Door"? Analysis of Rural Poverty Using a Consumption-Based Approach in West Belesa District,Ethiopia

Ethiopia has one of the highest poverty rates in the world where 24% of the population lives in extreme poverty. While urban poverty reduced from 26% in 2011 to 15% in 2016, rural poverty reduced only from 30 to 26% in the same periods. Improper identification of the rural poor and ill-understanding of the extent of rural poverty is among the challenges in designing appropriate poverty reduction interventions in rural areas. Thus, this study analyzes the extent of rural poverty employing a consumption-based approach and identifies the determinants of rural poverty at a household level. A household survey was conducted and data were randomly collected from 194 households from four representative villages in the west Belesa district of Ethiopia. The food and non-food consumption measurement calculated by the cost of basic need approach were 2949.40 ETB (ETB is Ethiopian Birr, which is the Ethiopian currency. 1 ETB is equivalent to 0.025 US$) and 1485.78 ETB per year per Adult Equivalent (AE), respectively. The rural poverty indices (i.e. headcount index, poverty gap, and squared poverty gap) calculated based on the consumption-based poverty line were 38.1, 8.84, and 3.1%, respectively. The binary logit analysis shows that having a bigger family had a significant and positive relationship with rural poverty. Conversely, larger landholding, plowing oxen, and livestock ownership as well as a higher amount of non/off-farm income have a significant and negative relationship with the poverty status of households. The study found that rural poverty is deep and complex in the study area calling for the design of location-specific and holistic poverty reduction strategies.

     

新疆农村贫困程度测度与扶贫资金动态绩效分析

新疆作为一个多民族、多宗教、多文化、多语言共存的特殊地区,扎实应对和稳步解决新疆贫困问题,事关祖国边疆的安全与稳定。首先,通过测算1994—2009年FGT贫困指数后发现:新疆农村的贫困广度、贫困深度和贫困强度的变化趋势具有波动性和阶段性特征,而且近几年减贫速度明显放缓,甚至有趋于加重的趋势;新疆农村居民的收入差距状况也不容乐观,正处于危险的边缘。然后,利用状态空间模型分析扶贫资金对贫困程度的动态扶贫绩效,得出以下结论:信贷扶贫资金的整体表现最佳,财政扶贫资金作用居中,以工代赈资金则在降低贫困强度方面表现较好;同时,总结出以下规律:当贫困程度较深时,具有较强盈利性的信贷扶贫资金和较强扩散性的财政扶贫资金更为有效;当由大范围贫困转为少数人贫困时,具有较强针对性的以工代赈资金更为有效。     

Improving Well-Being in Bhutan: A Pursuit of Happiness or Poverty Reduction?

Increasing happiness is a key priority for the Bhutanese government. This priority displaces more traditional (economic) objectives such as the pursuit of income growth and the reduction of income poverty. This paper examines the implications of this approach by examining whether there are common correlates of the four following measures of human well-being in Bhutan: income poverty; multidimensional poverty; perceived poverty; and happiness. Our findings suggest that whilst there is a degree of commonality, determinants of the different measures of well-being are distinct. Common factors include having a savings account, levels of literacy and household size. Further we show that higher levels of income poverty, multidimensional poverty and perceived poverty are found to be negatively associated with happiness. Importantly, our findings suggest that a focus on increasing happiness might come at the expense of improving other measures of wellbeing.