Beyond Piketty: A new perspective on poverty and inequality in India

The socio-economic literature has focused much on how overall inequality in income distribution (frequently measured by the Gini coefficient) undermines the “trickle down” effect. In other words, the higher the inequality in the income distribution, the lower is the growth elasticity of poverty. However, with the publication of Piketty’s magnum opus (2014), and a subsequent study by Chancel and Piketty (2017) of evolution of income inequality in India since 1922, the focus has shifted to the income disparity between the richest 1% (or 0.01%) and the bottom 50%. Their central argument is that the rapid growth of income at the top end of millionaires and billionaires is a by-product of growth. The present study extends this argument by linking it to poverty indices in India. Based on the India Human Development Survey 2005–12 – a nationwide panel survey-we examine the links between poverty and income inequality, especially in the upper tail relative to the bottom 50%, state affluence (measured in per capita income) and their interaction or their joint effect. Another feature of our research is that we analyse their effects on the FGT class of poverty indices. The results are similar in as much as direction of association is concerned but the elasticities vary with the poverty index. The growth elasticities are negative and significant for all poverty indices. In all three cases, the disparity between the income share of the top 1% and share of the bottom 50% is associated with greater poverty. These elasticities are much higher than the (absolute) income elasticities except in the case of the poverty gap. The largest increase occurs in the poverty gap squared – a 1% greater income disparity is associated with a 1.24% higher value of this index. Thus the consequences of even a small increase in the income disparity are alarming for the poorest.     

Urban cultivation in Accra: an examination of the nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications

The literature on urban farming in Sub-Saharan African cities reveals that most studies have been conducted in Eastern, Southern and Central African cities. A few have focused on West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Cameroon. In Ghana there is a paucity of information on urban farming. The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of urban cultivation in Accra, Ghana's capital, reviewing existing research, and to present new empirical findings on urban cultivation emphasizing on its history, nature, practices, problems, potentials and urban planning implications.     

Middle School Children's Perceptions on Welfare and Poverty: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study

This study was undertaken to determine how middle school children assess the effects of welfare reform on their daily lives. The study consisted of thirty interviews with children and their mothers recruited from a middle school in a large, metropolitan area. From the children's perspective, multiple jobs and evening/night hours interfered with the child-parent relationship. Other consequences included grades going down and not getting to school on time. All the children stated that mothers should work, but most children felt mothers should only work when their children are in school. Welfare and poverty were issues about which children were teased at school.     

Japan's “New Homeless”

Since the mid-1990s, homelessness has become a major issue of public discussion in Japan, and is often viewed as a new social problem facing Japanese society. The issue of homelessness contrasts images of the absence of poverty and homelessness in postwar Japan, often explained based on the unique features of Japanese-style employment and welfare, containing poverty and unemployment. This paper contrasts these views with a perspective on the continuity of poverty, and homelessness in postwar Japan. Specifically, I discuss the characteristics of homelessness in Tokyo, how they relate to the structure of the economy and employment practices, and how the problems of today's homeless are accommodated in the welfare system. I argue that the homeless cast light on patterns of loss of employment, housing, and means of subsistence, characteristic to Japan's economy and welfare system, and contribute to a new understanding of the dynamics of poverty in contemporary Japan.     

三代领导人城市布局思想与政策绩效分析

城市作为社会、经济、文化活动空间集聚面形成了社会景观, 其产生和发展是各种社会经济要素的空间流动和地理集中的结果。城市不但是人口集聚地, 而且成为各种产业的集聚中心。本文所及的城市布局、规范的范围始于新中国建立。20世纪50年来, 三代领导人在城市布局理论、方法和实践上的特色有许多值得总结的东西     

浅析新时期我国人口较少民族的扶贫开发对策

改革开放以来,我国人口较少民族在各方面得到了巨大的发展,然而,由于粗放式发展、自然环境、历史等方面的原因,我国人口较少民族少数地区仍至今存在着不同程度的贫困问题,影响了小康社会的全面实现。本文即围绕我国人口较少民族的部分特殊性,以科学发展观为指导,探讨在新的历史时期我国人口较少民族的扶贫开发对策。     

美国城市化经验对江苏城市化战略的启示

美国城市化经历了发生、发展、成熟的完整过程 ,具体表现为集中和分散两个显著特征 ;我国江苏城市化进程中的独特现象与美国城市化形成鲜明对比 ,通过比较、借鉴 ,江苏必须走出一条符合省情的城市化道路。     

Inference for the measurement of poverty in the presence of a stochastic weighting variable

Empirical applications of poverty measurement often have to deal with a stochastic weighting variable such as household size. Within the framework of a bivariate distribution function defined over income and weight, I derive the limiting distributions of the decomposable poverty measures and of the ordinates of stochastic dominance curves. The poverty line is allowed to depend on the income distribution. It is shown how the results can be used to test hypotheses concerning changes in poverty. The inference procedures are briefly illustrated using Belgian data. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Urban Housing as an Issue of Redistribution through Planning? The Case of Dhaka City

The rapid growth of population, the mushrooming of poor settlements and unplanned urbanization have crucial implications for the efficiency and equity of urban services. The resultant infringements of critical human rights throw into focus the importance of housing as a social policy issue. Urban services are strained in Dhaka city. Urban management has been disrupted as a result of spatial encroachment and environmental degradation. In addition to land scarcity, land speculation and endemic corruption, the high price of land is also a product of the system of land registration. The dearth of valuable urban land, together with delays in urban planning and its implementation, have made the acquisition of land for housing prohibitively expensive for middle and low‐income households. Consequently, the quality of the housing environment is deteriorating. The problem of housing finance is intrinsically linked to its affordability, being currently the prerogative only of the affluent. This article delineates the inherent lack of integrated urban planning, the lacunae within institutions responsible for urban management – and, contextually, the nature of housing as a social policy issue, where reinforced, coordinated planning and administration could ensure distributive benefits even to the poor.     

当代中国农村扶贫开发的历史经验

当代中国农村扶贫开发的历史经验主要是:一、制定符合国情的贫困标准,明确扶贫开发的具体帮扶对象;二、坚持开发式扶贫,把解决贫困问题与对贫困地区进行全面开发结合起来;三、坚持政府主导,广泛动员和组织全社会力量参与扶贫开发;四、积极开展与国际社会在扶贫开发领域中的交流与合作;五、高度重视和充分发挥科技教育在扶贫开发中的重要作用。