Showing papers on "Poverty published in 2016"

Thinking Small: A Review of Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Abstract: This title comes from the award-winning founders of the unique and remarkable Abdul Latfi Jameel Poverty Action Laboratory at MIT, a transformative reappraisal of the world of the extreme poor, their lives, desires and frustrations. Billions of government dollars, and thousands of charitable organizations and NGOs are dedicated to helping the world's poor. But much of the work they do is based on assumptions that are untested generalizations at best, flat out harmful misperceptions at worst. Banerjee and Duflo have pioneered the use of randomized control trials in development economics. Work based on these principles, supervised by the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, is being carried out in dozens of countries. Drawing on this and their 15 years of research from Chile to India, Kenya to Indonesia, they have identified wholly new aspects of the behavior of poor people, their needs, and the way that aid or financial investment can affect their lives. Their work transforms certain presumptions: that microfinance is a cure-all, that schooling equals learning, that poverty at the level of 99 cents a day is just a more extreme version of the experience any of us have when our income falls uncomfortably low. Throughout, the authors emphasize that life for the poor is simply not like life for everyone else: it is a much more perilous adventure, denied many of the cushions and advantages that are routinely provided to the more affluent: if they do not have a piped water supply the poor cannot benefit from chlorination; if they cannot afford ready-made breakfast cereals they cannot gain the enriched vitamins and other nutrients; they are routinely denied access to markets; and, they get negative interest rates on their savings, while exorbitant rates are charged on their loans. The daily stress of poverty discourages long-term thinking and often leads to bad decision-making. Add to that the fact the poor are routinely denied the information that might help them manage the nightmarish predicament that in most cases they are born into through no fault of their own. Bannerjee and Duflo are practical visionaries whose meticulous work offers all of us an opportunity to think of a world beyond poverty.

The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money.

Abstract: Mobile money, a service that allows monetary value to be stored on a mobile phone and sent to other users via text messages, has been adopted by the vast majority of Kenyan households. We estimate that access to the Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifted 194,000 households, or 2% of Kenyan households, out of poverty. The impacts, which are more pronounced for female-headed households, appear to be driven by changes in financial behavior-in particular, increased financial resilience and saving-and labor market outcomes, such as occupational choice, especially for women, who moved out of agriculture and into business. Mobile money has therefore increased the efficiency of the allocation of consumption over time while allowing a more efficient allocation of labor, resulting in a meaningful reduction of poverty in Kenya.

Poverty and Child Health in the United States

Abstract: Almost half of young children in the United States live in poverty or near poverty. The American Academy of Pediatrics is committed to reducing and ultimately eliminating child poverty in the United States. Poverty and related social determinants of health can lead to adverse health outcomes in childhood and across the life course, negatively affecting physical health, socioemotional development, and educational achievement. The American Academy of Pediatrics advocates for programs and policies that have been shown to improve the quality of life and health outcomes for children and families living in poverty. With an awareness and understanding of the effects of poverty on children, pediatricians and other pediatric health practitioners in a family-centered medical home can assess the financial stability of families, link families to resources, and coordinate care with community partners. Further research, advocacy, and continuing education will improve the ability of pediatricians to address the social determinants of health when caring for children who live in poverty. Accompanying this policy statement is a technical report that describes current knowledge on child poverty and the mechanisms by which poverty influences the health and well-being of children.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Abstract: “The hood is good”1. Così definisce il mercato privato degli affitti di bassa soglia Sherreena, insegnante in pensione e oggi “inner-city entrepeneur” (p. 13), ovvero proprietaria di case nel Black North Side di Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Usa). Queste quattro parole (p. 152) riassumono al meglio gli esiti della ricerca etnografica condotta dal sociologo Desmond sul crescente fenomeno degli sfratti a Milwaukee, Stati Uniti. Matthew Desmond è professore associato al Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali di Harvard e co-direttore del progetto “Justice and Poverty”2. Il suo ultimo lavoro, “Evicted. Poverty and Profit in the American City”, è diventato un caso editoriale negli Stati Uniti. La notevole quantità di articoli, interviste e recensioni che si possono trovare su internet, raccolte anche dall’autore stesso nella pagina web di promozione del libro3, è una prova evidente del successo del testo. Desmond in quest’opera combina elegantemente una prospettiva analitica di carattere accademico con uno stile narrativo proprio del reportage, restituendo un testo scientificamente fondato, ben articolato e allo stesso tempo accattivante. “Evicted” è costruito a partire da una ricerca etnografica condotta tra il maggio 2008 e il dicembre 2009 principalmente in due aree della città di Milwaukee (pp. 317-320): un quartiere periferico abitato in prevalenza da afroamericani in condizioni di severa povertà, il Black North Side, e un parcheggio per roulotte situato nella zona sud della città, denominata South Side. Desmond concentra la sua analisi su otto famiglie affittuarie e sui due proprietari (slumlords) degli alloggi e del parcheggio. La struttura generale del testo è semplice, ma efficace. Il libro è diviso in tre parti composte da otto capitoli ciascuno: la prima parte affronta il tema dell’affitto e del periodo precedente allo sfratto (Rent); la parte centrale del testo descrive il momento stesso dello sfratto e della perdita della casa (Out); la terza parte

Poverty and shared prosperity 2016 : taking on inequality

Abstract: On April 20, 2013, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank adopted two ambitious goals: end global extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in every country in a sustainable way. Each goal has an intrinsic value on its own merits, but the two goals are also highly complementary. To understand more clearly the progress toward the achievement of the goals, the World Bank is launching the annual Poverty and Shared Prosperity report series, which this report inaugurates. The report series will inform a global audience comprising development practitioners, policy makers, researchers, advocates, and citizens in general with the latest and most accurate estimates on trends in global poverty and shared prosperity. Every year, it will update information on the global number of the poor, the poverty headcount ratio worldwide, the regions that have been more successful or that have been lagging in advancing toward the goals, and the enhancements in monitoring and measuring poverty. In addition, it will feature a special focal theme. This report addresses the issue of inequality by documenting trends in inequality, identifying recent country experiences in successfully reducing inequality and boosting shared prosperity, examining key lessons, and synthesizing the evidence on public policies that lessen inequality by reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity.

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America

Abstract: A policing is in a crisis of legitimacy. Due to well-publicized deaths of suspects in custody and obvious increases in militarization, even those of a disposition normally supportive of the police instinctively know that something is wrong. In a growing number of ways, police officers less resemble Sheriff Andy Taylor and reveal their primary role, not as protectors of the public and individual rights, but as the enforcement arm of the state. Seeing police departments seemingly make a greater effort to prevent churches from meeting and people from conducting business while giving large groups of rioters free rein to gather closely together while destroying property was likely a red pill moment for many. The failure of local law enforcement to maintain order in several large

Drivers of household food availability in sub-Saharan Africa based on big data from small farms

Abstract: We calculated a simple indicator of food availability using data from 93 sites in 17 countries across contrasted agroecologies in sub-Saharan Africa (>13,000 farm households) and analyzed the drivers of variations in food availability. Crop production was the major source of energy, contributing 60% of food availability. The off-farm income contribution to food availability ranged from 12% for households without enough food available (18% of the total sample) to 27% for the 58% of households with sufficient food available. Using only three explanatory variables (household size, number of livestock, and land area), we were able to predict correctly the agricultural determined status of food availability for 72% of the households, but the relationships were strongly influenced by the degree of market access. Our analyses suggest that targeting poverty through improving market access and off-farm opportunities is a better strategy to increase food security than focusing on agricultural production and closing yield gaps. This calls for multisectoral policy harmonization, incentives, and diversification of employment sources rather than a singular focus on agricultural development. Recognizing and understanding diversity among smallholder farm households in sub-Saharan Africa is key for the design of policies that aim to improve food security.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2013–2014: Full Data Edition

Abstract: "The Global Competitiveness Report 2013–2014 is being released at a time when the world economy is undergoing significant shifts. The global financial crisis and the ensuing developments have heightened the role of emerging economies in the global context. This has accelerated the major economic transformations already underway, which have fueled rapid growth and lifted millions of people out of poverty. Yet, although the global economy’s prospects are more positive than they were when we released last year’s Report, growth has begun to slow across many emerging economies, and advanced economies in Europe and elsewhere continue to struggle..."

Poverty and Aspirations Failure

Abstract: We develop a theoretical framework to study the psychology of poverty and ‘aspirations failure’, defined as the failure to aspire to one's own potential. In our framework, rich and the poor persons share the same preferences and same behavioural bias in setting aspirations. We show that poverty can exacerbate the effects of this behavioural bias leading to aspirations failure and hence, a behavioural poverty trap. Aspirations failure is a consequence of poverty, rather than a cause. We specify the conditions under which raising aspirations alone is sufficient to help escape from a poverty trap, even without relaxing material constraints.

Transport poverty and its adverse social consequences

Abstract: Transport poverty is an issue that has never fully captured the interests of the transport engineering profession in either the ‘global north’ or ‘global south’ and yet it is a problem that adversely affects the daily lives of millions of people across the globe. What precisely constitutes transport poverty is not adequately articulated within academic, policy or infrastructure design literature. This paper aims to demonstrate how the different ways that academic studies and policy programmes have defined and recorded the problem of transport poverty is directly related to the ways in which it has been subsequently addressed in practice. The overall impression is one of inadequacy, fragmentation, inconsistency and tokenistic treatment of an issue that potentially affects anywhere between 10 to 90% of all households, depending on which definition is used and which country is being considered. This suggests that it is a far greater problem than the transport profession has previously been prepared to recogn...

The Psychological Lives of the Poor.

Abstract: All individuals rely on a fundamental set of mental capacities and functions, or bandwidth, in their economic and non-economic lives. Yet, many factors associated with poverty, such as mal...

World employment and social outlook: trends 2016

Abstract: The world economy continues to grow at a disappointing pace, and over 2016 and 2017 it is projected to continue growing well below the levels achieved prior to the onset of the crisis. As a result, global unemployment is expected to increase by nearly 2.3 million in 2016, and by a further 1.1 million in 2017. As in 2015, most of this increase will take place in emerging markets. Job quality is also deteriorating. While there has been a decrease in vulnerable employment and working poverty rates, vulnerable employment still accounts for over 46 per cent of total employment globally, affecting nearly 1.5 billion people. [This report] provides a global overview of these worrying trends, and presents unemployment projections until 2017 by income and regional groups, as well as projections on several dimensions of job quality until 2020. It also examines the major challenges these trends pose in achieving the newly adopted Sustainable Development Agenda.

Lights, Camera … Income! Illuminating the National Accounts-Household Surveys Debate

Abstract: GDP per capita and household survey means present conflicting pictures of the rate of economic development in emerging countries. One of the areas in which the national accounts‐household surveys debate is key is the measurement of developing world poverty. We propose a data-driven method to assess the relative quality of GDP per capita and survey means by comparing them to the evolution of satellite-recorded nighttime lights. Our main assumption, which is robust to a variety of specification checks, is that the measurement error in nighttime lights is unrelated to the measurement errors in either national accounts or survey means. We obtain estimates of weights on national accounts and survey means in an optimal proxy for true income; these weights are very large for national accounts and very modest for survey means. We conclusively reject the null hypothesis that the optimal weight on surveys is greater than the optimal weight on national accounts, and we generally fail to reject the null hypothesis that the optimal weight on surveys is zero. Additionally, we provide evidence that national accounts are good indicators of desirable outcomes for the poor (such as longer life expectancy, better education and access to safe water), and we show that surveys appear to perform worse in developing countries that are richer and that are growing faster. Therefore, we interpret our results as providing support for estimates of world poverty that are based on national accounts. JEL Code: I32.

Toward a new understanding of the links between poverty and illegal wildlife hunting.

Abstract: Conservation organizations have increasingly raised concerns about escalating rates of illegal hunting and trade in wildlife. Previous studies have concluded that people hunt illegally because they are financially poor or lack alternative livelihood strategies. However, there has been little attempt to develop a richer understanding of the motivations behind contemporary illegal wildlife hunting. As a first step, we reviewed the academic and policy literatures on poaching and illegal wildlife use and considered the meanings of poverty and the relative importance of structure and individual agency. We placed motivations for illegal wildlife hunting within the context of the complex history of how wildlife laws were initially designed and enforced to indicate how hunting practices by specific communities were criminalized. We also considered the nature of poverty and the reasons for economic deprivation in particular communities to indicate how particular understandings of poverty as material deprivation ultimately shape approaches to illegal wildlife hunting. We found there is a need for a much better understanding of what poverty is and what motivates people to hunt illegally.

Do international migration and remittances reduce poverty in developing countries

Abstract: International migration and remittances have an important role in economic and social development of the developing countries as it helps in achieving the gains of globalization. This paper endeavors to explore the relationship by forming and evaluating a new data set on foreign remittances, international migration, poverty and inequality in South Asian countries. As poverty and income inequality are the prime issues faced by the developing countries meanwhile a handsome number of skilled and educated workers of such countries is employed abroad in the high income countries, so the foreign remittances sent by these workers to home countries is expected to have positive impacts on poverty reduction. The contribution of foreign remittances in the total income of South Asia is 4.2% which shows a significant proportion of GDP and it has significant impact on poverty alleviation.

The Political Logic of Poverty Relief: Electoral Strategies and Social Policy in Mexico

Abstract: Poverty relief programs are shaped by politics. The particular design which social programs take is to a large extent determined by the existing institutional constraints and politicians' imperative to win elections. The Political Logic of Poverty Relief places elections and institutional design at the core of poverty alleviation. The authors develop a theory with applications to Mexico about how elections shape social programs aimed at aiding the poor. Would political parties possess incentives to target the poor with transfers aimed at poverty alleviation or would they instead give these to their supporters? Would politicians rely on the distribution of particularistic benefits rather than public goods? The authors assess the welfare effects of social programs in Mexico and whether voters reward politicians for targeted poverty alleviation programs. The book provides a new interpretation of the role of cash transfers and poverty relief assistance in the development of welfare state institutions.

Does Financial Development Reduce Income Inequality and Poverty? Evidence fromEmerging Countries

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to examine whether bank and stock market development contributes to reducing income inequality and poverty in emerging countries. Using dynamic panel data methods with an updated dataset for the period 1987–2011, we assess the finance–inequality–poverty nexus by taking the separate and simultaneous impacts of banks and stock markets into account. Mixed explanatory findings on panel studies suggest that although financial development promotes economic growth, this does not necessarily benefit those on low-incomes in emerging countries. For the finance–poverty link, we find that neither banks nor stock markets play a significant role in poverty reduction.

Funding Financial Inclusion: Institutional Logics and the Contextual Contingency of Funding for Microfinance Organizations

Abstract: Microfinance is a promising tool for addressing the grand challenge of global poverty. Yet, while many studies have examined how microfinance loans affect poor borrowers, we know little about how m...