Showing papers on "Poverty published in 2017"

World Development Report 2018 : Learning to Realize Education's Promise

Abstract: Korea understood that education was the best way to pull itself out of economic misery, so it focused on overhauling schools and committed itself to educating every child, and educating them well. Coupled with smart, innovative government policies and a vibrant private sector, the focus on education paid off. Today, not only has Korea achieved universal literacy, but its students also perform at the highest levels in international learning assessments. It’s a high-income country and a model of successful economic development. Korea is a particularly striking example, but we can see the salutary effects of education in many countries. Delivered well, education, and the human capital it creates, has many benefits for economies, and for societies. For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, and health. It raises pride and opens new horizons. For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, reduces poverty, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion. In short, education powerfully advances the World Bank Group’s twin strategic goals: ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Given that today’s students will be tomorrow’s citizens, leaders, workers, and parents, a good education is an investment with enduring benefits. But providing education is not enough. What is important, and what generates a real return on investment, is learning and acquiring skills. This is what truly builds human capital. As this year’s, World Development Report documents, in many countries and communities learning isn’t happening. Schooling without learning is a terrible waste of precious resources and of human potential. Worse, it is an injustice. Without learning, students will be locked into lives of poverty and exclusion, and the children whom societies fail the most are those most in need of a good education to succeed in life. Learning conditions are almost always much worse for the disadvantaged, and so are learning outcomes. Moreover, far too many children still aren’t even attending school. This is a moral and economic crisis that must be addressed immediately. This year’s Report provides a path to address this economic and moral failure. The detailed analysis in this Report shows that these problems are driven not only by service delivery failings in schools but also by deeper systemic problems. The human capital lost because of these shortcomings threatens development and jeopardizes the future of peopleand their societies. At the same time, rapid technological change raises the stakes: to compete in the economy of the future, workers need strong basic skills and foundations for adaptability, creativity, and lifelong learning.

Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity

Abstract: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health.Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Abstract: Book Reviews that loosely weaves together ideas of relational subjectivity with the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann—I gave up. The world is in flames. We need good, clear, accurate, and powerful ex- planations for what’s happening so that we can figure out how to smartly move forward. Maybe a sociologist will read some critical realism and get inspired to produce a brilliant explanation she or he wouldn’t have other- wise. I hope so. But neither of these two books makes a convincing case that critical realism is the royal road to sociological truth. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. By Matthew Desmond. New York: Crown Publishers, 2016. Pp. xi1420. $28.00. David J. Harding University of California, Berkeley Matthew Desmond’s Evicted is first and foremost an ethnography about the daily experiences of poverty with a unique focus on the causes and con- sequences of housing instability and housing quality. Unlike prior poverty ethnographies that focus on a particular neighborhood, this book shadows eight poor families, both black and white, and two landlords who rent apartments, houses, or trailer homes to the poor. Following the experiences of these research subjects over multiple years in Milwaukee reveals in painstaking detail the central importance of eviction to the contemporary experience of being poor. These arguments are buttressed by other data sources as well, including surveys of renters and administrative records from housing court. In short, one cannot read Evicted without coming to the conclusion that eviction and its consequences play a central role in trap- ping individuals and families in poverty. Despite the focus on public housing and housing vouchers in public and academic discussions of housing and poverty, Evicted points out that most of the poor are on their own in the private rental market, one in which there is surprisingly little variation in rents across neighborhoods and almost no options that are anywhere near affordable for a family trying to get by on low-wage work or public assistance. Landlords who rent to such families can rarely count on consistently receiving the full payment of rent, and, as a result, the apartments, houses, and trailers available to such families are typically in chronic disrepair, including broken plumbing, inoperable appliances and furnaces, and broken doors and windows. The state is ab- sent from the market in many ways, with minimal proactive enforcement of building code violations, few resources devoted to affordable housing, and little regulation of rents. Yet when the state does play a role, it is over- whelmingly arrayed against the tenant. Nuisance complaints recorded by the police motivate evictions, sheriff’s deputies execute evictions, child wel- fare agencies take children away when families become homeless or live in unsafe housing, and the complexities of housing courts favor the landlord This content downloaded from 169.229.151.152 on June 30, 2017 10:30:27 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).

Poverty and disability in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review

Abstract: Introduction Disability and poverty are believed to operate in a cycle, with each reinforcing the other. While agreement on the existence of a link is strong, robust empirical evidence substantiating and describing this potential association is lacking. Consequently, a systematic review was undertaken to explore the relationship between disability and economic poverty, with a focus on the situation in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Methods Ten electronic databases were searched to retrieve studies of any epidemiological design, published between 1990-March 2016 with data comparing the level of poverty between people with and without disabilities in LMICs (World Bank classifications). Poverty was defined using economic measures (e.g. assets, income), while disability included both broad assessments (e.g. self-reported functional or activity limitations) and specific impairments/disorders. Data extracted included: measures of association between disability and poverty, population characteristics and study characteristics. Proportions of studies finding positive, negative, null or mixed associations between poverty and disability were then disaggregated by population and study characteristics. Results From the 15,500 records retrieved and screened, 150 studies were included in the final sample. Almost half of included studies were conducted in China, India or Brazil (n = 70, 47%). Most studies were cross-sectional in design (n = 124, 83%), focussed on specific impairment types (n = 115, 77%) and used income as the measure for economic poverty (n = 82, 55%). 122 studies (81%) found evidence of a positive association between disability and a poverty marker. This relationship persisted when results were disaggregated by gender, measure of poverty used and impairment types. By country income group at the time of data collection, the proportion of country-level analyses with a positive association increased with the rising income level, with 59% of low-income, 67% of lower-middle and 72% of upper-middle income countries finding a positive relationship. By age group, the proportion of studies reporting a positive association between disability and poverty was lowest for older adults and highest for working-age adults (69% vs. 86%). Conclusions There is strong evidence for a link between disability and poverty in LMICs and an urgent need for further research and programmatic/policy action to break the cycle.

Cities and Mental Health.

Abstract: BACKGROUND More than half of the global population currently lives in cities, with an increasing trend for further urbanization. Living in cities is associated with increased population density, traffic noise and pollution, but also with better access to health care and other commodities. METHODS This review is based on a selective literature search, providing an overview of the risk factors for mental illness in urban centers. RESULTS Studies have shown that the risk for serious mental illness is generally higher in cities compared to rural areas. Epidemiological studies have associated growing up and living in cities with a considerably higher risk for schizophrenia. However, correlation is not causation and living in poverty can both contribute to and result from impairments associated with poor mental health. Social isolation and discrimination as well as poverty in the neighborhood contribute to the mental health burden while little is known about specific interactions between such factors and the built environment. CONCLUSION Further insights on the interaction between spatial heterogeneity of neighborhood resources and socio-ecological factors is warranted and requires interdisciplinary research.

Austerity and health: the impact in the UK and Europe

Abstract: Austerity measures-reducing social spending and increasing taxation-hurts deprived groups the most. Less is known about the impact on health. In this short review, we evaluate the evidence of austerity's impact on health, through two main mechanisms: a 'social risk effect' of increasing unemployment, poverty, homelessness and other socio-economic risk factors (indirect), and a 'healthcare effect' through cuts to healthcare services, as well as reductions in health coverage and restricting access to care (direct). We distinguish those impacts of economic crises from those of austerity as a response to it. Where possible, data from across Europe will be drawn upon, as well as more extensive analysis of the UK's austerity measures performed by the authors of this review.

Climate change through a poverty lens

Abstract: The economic impact of climate change has typically been considered at regional or national levels. This Perspective assesses impacts at household level to determine effects on poverty and the poor. It shows how rapid development could reduce these impacts. Analysis of the economic impact of climate change typically considers regional or national economies and assesses its impact on macroeconomic aggregates such as gross domestic product. These studies therefore do not investigate the distributional impacts of climate change within countries or the impacts on poverty. This Perspective aims to close this gap and provide an assessment of climate change impacts at the household level to investigate the consequences of climate change for poverty and for poor people. It does so by combining assessments of the physical impacts of climate change in various sectors with household surveys. In particular, it highlights how rapid and inclusive development can reduce the future impact of climate change on poverty.

Mapping poverty using mobile phone and satellite data

Abstract: Poverty is one of the most important determinants of adverse health outcomes globally, a major cause of societal instability and one of the largest causes of lost human potential. Traditional approaches to measuring and targeting poverty rely heavily on census data, which in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are unavailable or out-of-date. Alternate measures are needed to complement and update estimates between censuses. This study demonstrates how public and private data sources that are commonly available for LMICs can be used to provide novel insight into the spatial distribution of poverty. We evaluate the relative value of modelling three traditional poverty measures using aggregate data from mobile operators and widely available geospatial data. Taken together, models combining these data sources provide the best predictive power (highest r2 = 0.78) and lowest error, but generally models employing mobile data only yield comparable results, offering the potential to measure poverty more frequently and at finer granularity. Stratifying models into urban and rural areas highlights the advantage of using mobile data in urban areas and different data in different contexts. The findings indicate the possibility to estimate and continually monitor poverty rates at high spatial resolution in countries with limited capacity to support traditional methods of data collection.

Improving Mental Health Access for Low-Income Children and Families in the Primary Care Setting

Abstract: Poverty is a common experience for many children and families in the United States. Children <18 years old are disproportionately affected by poverty, making up 33% of all people in poverty. Living in a poor or low-income household has been linked to poor health and increased risk for mental health problems in both children and adults that can persist across the life span. Despite their high need for mental health services, children and families living in poverty are least likely to be connected with high-quality mental health care. Pediatric primary care providers are in a unique position to take a leading role in addressing disparities in access to mental health care, because many low-income families come to them first to address mental health concerns. In this report, we discuss the impact of poverty on mental health, barriers to care, and integrated behavioral health care models that show promise in improving access and outcomes for children and families residing in the contexts of poverty. We also offer practice recommendations, relevant to providers in the primary care setting, that can help improve access to mental health care in this population.

The energy divide: Integrating energy transitions, regional inequalities and poverty trends in the European Union.

Abstract: Energy poverty can be understood as the inability of a household to secure a socially and materially necessitated level of energy services in the home. While the condition is widespread across Europe, its spatial and social distribution is highly uneven. In this paper, the existence of a geographical energy poverty divide in the European Union (EU) provides a starting point for conceptualizing and exploring the relationship between energy transitions - commonly described as wide-ranging processes of socio-technical change - and existing patterns of regional economic inequality. We have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of spatial and temporal trends in the national-scale patterns of energy poverty, as well as gas and electricity prices. The results of our work indicate that the classic economic development distinction between the core and periphery also holds true in the case of energy poverty, as the incidence of this phenomenon is significantly higher in Southern and Eastern European EU Member States. The paper thus aims to provide the building blocks for a novel theoretical integration of questions of path-dependency, uneven development and material deprivation in existing interpretations of energy transitions.

Labor Markets and Poverty in Village Economies

Abstract: We study how women’s choices over labor activities in village economies correlate with poverty and whether enabling the poorest women to take on the activities of their richer counterparts can set them on a sustainable trajectory out of poverty. To do this we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial, covering over 21,000 households in 1,309 villages surveyed four times over a seven year period, to evaluate a nationwide program in Bangladesh that transfers livestock assets and skills to the poorest women. At baseline, the poorest women mostly engage in low return and seasonal casual wage labor while wealthier women solely engage in livestock rearing. The program enables poor women to start engaging in livestock rearing, increasing their aggregate labor supply and earnings. This leads to asset accumulation (livestock, land and business assets) and poverty reduction, both accelerating after four and seven years. These gains do not come at the expense of others: non-eligibles’ livestock rearing businesses are not crowded out and wages received for casual jobs increase as the poor reduce their labor supply in such labor activities. Our results show that: (i) the poor are able to take on the work activities of the non-poor but face barriers to doing so, and, (ii) one-o¤ interventions that remove these barriers lead to sustainable poverty reduction.

Moving Beyond Correlations in Assessing the Consequences of Poverty.

Abstract: In the United States, does growing up in a poor household cause negative developmental outcomes for children? Hundreds of studies have documented statistical associations between family income in childhood and a host of outcomes in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Many of these studies have used correlational evidence to draw policy conclusions regarding the benefits of added family income for children, in particular children in families with incomes below the poverty line. Are these conclusions warranted? After a review of possible mechanisms linking poverty to negative childhood outcomes, we summarize the evidence for income's effects on children, paying particular attention to the strength of the evidence and the timing of economic deprivation. We demonstrate that, in contrast to the nearly universal associations between poverty and children's outcomes in the correlational literature, impacts estimated from social experiments and quasi-experiments are more selective. In particular, these stronger studies have linked increases in family income to increased school achievement in middle childhood and to greater educational attainment in adolescence and early adulthood. There is no experimental or quasi-experimental evidence in the United States that links child outcomes to economic deprivation in the first several years of life. Understanding the nature of socioeconomic influences, as well as their potential use in evidence-based policy recommendations, requires greater attention to identifying causal effects.

Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data From the 2007 American Community Survey

Abstract: This report presents data on income, earnings, and poverty by detailed socioeconomic characteristics for the United States, states, and lower levels of geography based on information collected in the 2006 and 2007 American Community Surveys (ACS). A description of the ACS is provided in the text box “What Is the American Community Survey?” The U.S. Census Bureau also reports income, earnings, and poverty data based on the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC). Following the standard specified by the Offi ce of Management and Budget (OMB) in Statistical Policy Directive 14, the Census Bureau computes offi cial national poverty rates using the CPS ASEC and reports the 2007 data in the publication Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007. The 2007 ACS is the second year of the survey’s implementation including both housing units and group quarters in its sample.2 The ACS is designed to provide detailed estimates of housing, demographic, social, and economic characteristics for the states, counties, places, and other localities. This report makes state-level comparisons over the 2006 to 2007 time period. Such comparisons should be interpreted with caution because of overlapping income reference periods.

The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation in High-Income Countries

Abstract: By the early 21st century, most high-income countries have put into effect a host of generous and virtually gender-neutral parental leave policies and family benefits, with the multiple goals of gender equity, higher fertility, and child development What have been the effects? Proponents typically emphasize the contribution of family policies to the goals of gender equity and child development, enabling women to combine careers and motherhood, and altering social norms regarding gender roles Opponents often warn that family policies may become a long-term hindrance to women's careers because of the loss of work experience and the higher costs to employers that hire women of childbearing age We draw lessons from existing work and our own analysis on the effects of parental leave and other interventions aimed at aiding families We present country- and micro-level evidence on the effects of family policy on gender outcomes, focusing on female employment, gender gaps in earnings, and fertility Most estimates range from negligible to a small positive impact But the verdict is far more positive for the beneficial impact of spending on early education and childcare

Financial inclusion, poverty, and income inequality

Abstract: This paper extends the existing literature on financial inclusion by analyzing the factors affecting financial inclusion and assessing the impact of financial inclusion on poverty and income inequality in the world and Asia. We construct a new financial inclusion indicators to assess various macroeconomic and country-specific factors affecting the degree of financial inclusion for 176 economies, including 37 of which from developing Asia. We test the impact of financial inclusion, along with other control variables, on poverty and income inequality. We do so for full sample of countries and then for developing Asia sample to access which factors are relevant for full sample and for developing Asia specifically. The estimation results show that per capita income, rule of law, and demographic characteristics significantly affect financial inclusion for both world and Asia samples. However, primary education completion and literacy significantly increases financial inclusion only in the full sample, not for ...

Global carbon inequality

Abstract: Global climate change and inequality are inescapably linked both in terms of who contributes climate change and who suffers the consequences. This fact is also partly reflected in two United Nations (UN) processes: on the one hand, the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change under which countries agreed to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and, on the other hand, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals aiming to end poverty. These agreements are seen as important foundation to put the world nations on a sustainable pathway. However, how these agreements can be achieved or whether they are even mutually compatible is less clear. We explore the global carbon inequality between and within countries and the carbon implications of poverty alleviation by combining detailed consumer expenditure surveys for different income categories for a wide range of countries with an environmentally extended multi-regional input–output approach to estimate carbon footprints of different household groups, globally, and assess the carbon implications of moving the poorest people out of poverty. Given the current context, increasing income leads to increasing carbon footprints and makes global targets for mitigating greenhouse gases more difficult to achieve given the pace of technological progress and current levels of fossil fuel dependence. We conclude that the huge level of carbon inequality requires a critical discussion of undifferentiated income growth. Current carbon-intensive lifestyles and consumption patterns need to enter the climate discourse to a larger extent.

Microfinance and the business of poverty reduction: Critical perspectives from rural Bangladesh

Abstract: In this article we provide a critical analysis of the role of market-based approaches to poverty reduction in developing countries. In particular, we analyse the role of microfinance in poverty alleviation by conducting an ethnographic study of three villages in Bangladesh. Microfinance has become an increasingly popular approach that aims to alleviate poverty by providing the poor new opportunities for entrepreneurship. It also aims to promote empowerment (especially among women) while enhancing social capital in poor communities. Our findings, however, reflect a different picture. We found microfinance led to increasing levels of indebtedness among already impoverished communities and exacerbated economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on the role of social capital in developing entrepreneurial capabilities in poor communities by highlighting processes whereby social capital can be undermined by market-based measures like microfinance.