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For almost ten years there has been growing concern about the concentration of poverty among African‐Americans living in the inner cities of America's metropolitan areas. Along with this concern a debate has emerged between Douglas Massey and co‐authors, and William Julius Wilson as to what the root cause of this concentration is, as well as its impact on the African‐American community. Most of the evidence directed toward answering these questions has come from the analysis of large data sets. With data from a five‐year ethnographic study of three inner‐city areas in Los Angeles, New York and Detroit, this paper presents evidence of how the dynamic associated with the increasing trend toward concentration gets worked out in everyday life. It demonstrates that the process of concentration is more complicated than simply the job loss explanation advanced by Wilson, or segregation effects argued by Massey et al. Further, it provides evidence that while social isolation does occur as a result of the concentration dynamic, it is the isolation from the working class (as opposed to the middle class) that has the most profound negative impact on the poor. Finally, the paper provides evidence that as social isolation has increased between the African‐American poor and the other social strata within the African‐American community, it has not precipitated generalized feelings of hopelessness among the poor as Wilson and Massey suggest.Depuis une dizaine d'années, la concentration de la pauvreté au sein des africains‐américains vivant dans le centre des villes des métropoles américaines est devenue un sujet d'inquiétude de plus en plus marqué. Un débat est apparu sur ce point entre Douglas Massey, ses co‐auteurs, et William Julius Wilson quant à la cause première de cette concentration et de son impact sur la communauté africain‐américaine. La plupart des preuves qui servent à répondre à ces questions proviennent de l'analyses de larges banques de données. Utilisant des données provenant d'une étude ethnographique de cinq ans sur trois quartiers de centre‐ville à Los Angelès, New York et Détroit, cet article apporte des éléments de preuve qui montrent comment la dynamique associée à la tendance croissante à la concentration fonctionne dans la vie de tous les jours. Il démontre que le processus de concentration est plus compliqué que la simple explication de la perte de travail avancé par Wilson ou les effets de la ségrégation suggérés par Massey et al. De sucroît, le papier montre que lorsque que l'isolement social est le résultat de la dynamique de concentration/ségrégation, c'est la séparation de la classe ouvrière (et non des classes moyennes) qui produit les résultats les plus négatifs sur les pauvres. Ce papier montre enfin que si la ségrégation s'est accrue entre les pauvres africains‐américains et les autres groupes sociaux de cette communauté, cela n'a pas engendré de sentiments généralisés de désespoir parmi les pauvres contrairement à ce qui avait été suggéré par Wilson et Massey.

Abstract
Using official regional price parities (RPPs) recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, we investigate how RPP adjustments affect the entire distribution of U.S. family incomes, poverty, inequality, tax progressivity, and metro-size agglomeration premiums. We find that higher-income families tend to live in higher-price areas, so regional mean incomes converge as real incomes fall in richer, higher-cost regions and rise in poorer, lower-cost regions. Further, the differences in poverty rates for the metro and non-metro areas vanish and we find re-rankings in poverty rates among the 9 Census Divisions. RPP adjustments also influence income inequality and effective U.S. tax progressivity. They increase effective federal tax progressivity by more than 25 %, equivalent to a $2,500 cash transfer. When we control for local prices and the characteristics of the family head, income (agglomeration) premiums for major metropolitan areas largely, but not completely, disappear.

Empirical evidence suggests that women are more vulnerable to chronic poverty and gender inequality is likely to condition the impacts of policies on the rest of the economy and consequently on poverty itself. While gender-responsive budgeting has made significant headway into economic policy, taxation has lagged behind. Because tax policy is the most economically direct way by which governments can influence individual behavior, requests have been made for gender-responsive tax policy that promote gender equality. This study applied to Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia aims to contribute to this debate by assessing the induced gender employment bias of current taxation policies in these countries. It explores the pattern of male and female employment and discusses the indirect tax distortions across sectors within each country and between countries. The possible impact of the indirect tax distortion on male and female employment is quantitatively assessed using a gender-focused computable general equilibrium model. The analysis reveals that indirect taxes, in particular import duties, are biased for female employment in Algeria and Egypt, but not in Morocco and Tunisia. Female labor–intensive industries in Algeria and Egypt are highly protected in the benchmark and are not competitive internationally so that removing protection would increase competition with cheaper import substitutes and cause the sector to contract and lay off workers. In contrast, the same female labor–intensive industries are less protected in Morocco and Tunisia. Hence, removal of indirect taxes in these countries would result in quasi-neutral effects between male and female salary and wage earnings. The taxation policies in the Middle East and North Africa region have changed over the last decade and may undergo significant changes in the coming years. In light of this unpredictability, an assessment of the tax-related relative price bias on men and women constitutes a crucial step toward providing adequate guidance to planners, policymakers, and other stakeholders. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Policy communications; PP-20 ; WCAO

Background: The way in which a government chooses to finance a health intervention can affect the uptake of health interventions and consequently the extent of health gains. In addition to health gains, some policies such as public finance can insure against catastrophic health expenditures. We aimed to evaluate the health and financial risk protection benefits of selected interventions that could be publicly financed by the government of Ethiopia. Methods: We used extended cost-effectiveness analysis to assess the health gains (deaths averted) and financial risk protection afforded (cases of poverty averted) by a bundle of nine (among many other) interventions that the Government of Ethiopia aims to make universally available. These nine interventions were measles vaccination, rotavirus vaccination, pneumococcal conjugate vaccination, diarrhoea treatment, malaria treatment, pneumonia treatment, caesarean section surgery, hypertension treatment, and tuberculosis treatment. Findings: Our analysis shows that, per dollar spent by the Ethiopian Government, the interventions that avert the most deaths are measles vaccination (367 deaths averted per USD100 000 spent), pneumococcal conjugate vaccination (170 deaths averted per USD100 000 spent), and caesarean section surgery (141 deaths averted per USD100 000 spent). The interventions that avert the most cases of poverty are caesarean section surgery (98 cases averted per USD100 000 spent), tuberculosis treatment (96 cases averted per USD100 000 spent), and hypertension treatment (84 cases averted per USD100 000 spent). Interpretation: Our approach incorporates financial risk protection into the economic evaluation of health interventions and therefore provides information about the efficiency of attainment of both major objectives of a health system: improved health and financial risk protection. One intervention might rank higher on one or both metrics than another, which shows how intervention choice—the selection of a pathway to universal health coverage—might involve weighing up of sometimes competing objectives. This understanding can help policy makers to select interventions to target specific policy goals (ie, improved health or financial risk protection). It is especially relevant for the design and sequencing of universal health coverage to meet the needs of poor populations. ; publishedVersion

AbstractWhile there is a growing body of literature on the lived experiences of people in poverty, their interaction with the welfare delivery system at different levels is still under‐theorised. This article presents a multi‐level institutional framework to qualitatively study the low‐income families' experiences in claiming in‐work benefits (IWBs). Considering the Low‐income Working Family Allowance (LIFA) in Hong Kong as an extreme case of IWB's residualism and productivism, the findings suggest that LIFA claimants faced cycles of counter‐productive re‐assessment in their everyday frontline practices, and underwent organisational barriers in workplaces and families in collecting the proofs required by the means‐testing and work‐testing procedures. These experiences were linked to Hong Kong's macro‐systemic contexts that prioritised long working hours and strict targeting of low‐wage breadwinners. This study contributes to the literature by linking social policy implementation and welfare delivery to claiming experiences, and empirically reveals the complexities of IWBs using means‐tests and work‐tests.

Using time‐series techniques with national data for 1967–98, we model the effects on changes in age‐race‐specific arrest rates of changes in indicators of economic deprivation. A measure of child poverty is positively related to juvenile arrest rates for both races, whereas changing unemployment (lagged) yields a surprising negative effect on youth offending. Measures of intraracial income inequality are also associated with changes in juvenile arrest rates, but the effects differ by race. Between‐race inequality is unrelated to changes in arrest rates for both races. Our general conclusion is that fluctuations in juvenile homicide offending over recent decades can be understood, at least in part, with reference to the macro‐economic environment confronting young people and their families.

Lifting close to 1 billion people out of poverty is a major challenge for Asian countries. Many of the 240 to 260 million poor living in cities and towns suffer from inadequate service and other forms of deprivation. As the search for sustainable alternatives continues, many Asian countries have begun to experiment with private sector initaitves and public-private partnerships to reach out to the poor. Beyond Boundaries: Extending Services to the Urban Pooris a collection of cases from 19 Asian countries where the private sector either independently or in partnership with the public sector, NGOs, and community-bsed groups has stepped in to provide services such as water supply, sanitation, and solid waste management. It comes with a CD containing the book and full version of the cases undertaken in the study

Lifting close to 1 billion people out of poverty is a major challenge for Asian countries. Many of the 240 to 260 million poor living in cities and towns suffer from inadequate service and other forms of deprivation. As the search for sustainable alternatives continues, many Asian countries have begun to experiment with private sector initaitves and public-private partnerships to reach out to the poor. Beyond Boundaries: Extending Services to the Urban Pooris a collection of cases from 19 Asian countries where the private sector either independently or in partnership with the public sector, NGOs, and community-bsed groups has stepped in to provide services such as water supply, sanitation, and solid waste management. It comes with a CD containing the book and full version of the cases undertaken in the study

India still has one of the world's greatest burdens of infectious illnesses, driven by variables such as massive population, significant poverty, subpar sanitation, and impedances in access to basic health care. To overcome this burden, the Integrated Disease Monitoring Project (IDSP), funded by the World Bank, was established by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare in November 2004 to strengthen the country's monitoring and response system. Several challenges in the effective utilization of IDSP and the need for elaborated epidemiological data for quick response led to the development and design of a novel Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP). This platform's future impacts include better surveillance coverage, improved continuous monitoring, better-automated analysis, visualization and displaying of near-real-time data, and closed network linkage of various reporting units such as field staff, medical officers, and laboratory personnel. Data collection under IDSP was paper-based and it produced a weekly surveillance report this includes case-centric data with demographic, clinical, and laboratory details, and links it with IDSP's S, P, and L formats. Developed by the Government of India, with the support from the WHO, this platform integrates the electronic health records of individuals from all parts of India, allowing greater continuity of the treatment, secure and confidential storage of data/records, enhanced illness diagnostics, reduction, and even prevention of medical errors. This paper is intended to study this novel IHIP model of the Government of India, highlight its current challenges, propose possible solutions, and predict future possibilities.

In the Marshall Islands, abject poverty or destitution (jeramwil) does not exist since the poor are not starving and most have access to land and other natural resources. However, many people are poor and facing hardship, and the problem seems to be getting worse. The 1999 Pacific Human Development Report ranked the Marshall Islands 8th out of 12 Pacific developing countries, which represents a downgrading from the country's position as 5th in 1994. It is estimated that, in 1999, two thirds of outer island households fell below the poverty line of $1 a day. The Marshall Islands is one of the most urbanized countries in the Pacific with almost 70% of the population living either on Majuro or Ebeye. The high population density on these two islands, combined with economic decline in rural areas, are the cause of many of the problems being experienced. There have been recent improvements, particularly in the areas of infant mortality, immunization, and the incidence of underweight children, but the government recognizes that it needs to better understand the nature of hardship in the country and develop ways to address it. In 2002, the government led a "Participatory Assessment on Hardship" to find out the needs, views, and hopes of communities living throughout the country, especially the disadvantaged and poor themselves. Two thirds of outer-islanders live on less than $1 a day A house made of scrap materials2 3 Not having enough to meet basic needs Ten sample communities were selected to represent both rural and urban areas and differing levels of access to services: four outer island communities on Ailinglaplap and Arno Atolls, three urban neighborhoods on Ebeye Island, and three communities on Majuro Atoll. One-on-one interviews, small group discussions, questionnaires, and case studies were used during the assessment to gather information from people in these communities, and discussions were held with government representatives and social, religious, and nongovernment organizations. A national workshop was held to discuss the assessment findings and formulate strategies and recommendations. The assessment was funded by the Asian Development Bank.

In the Marshall Islands, abject poverty or destitution (jeramwil) does not exist since the poor are not starving and most have access to land and other natural resources. However, many people are poor and facing hardship, and the problem seems to be getting worse. The 1999 Pacific Human Development Report ranked the Marshall Islands 8th out of 12 Pacific developing countries, which represents a downgrading from the country's position as 5th in 1994. It is estimated that, in 1999, two thirds of outer island households fell below the poverty line of $1 a day. The Marshall Islands is one of the most urbanized countries in the Pacific with almost 70% of the population living either on Majuro or Ebeye. The high population density on these two islands, combined with economic decline in rural areas, are the cause of many of the problems being experienced. There have been recent improvements, particularly in the areas of infant mortality, immunization, and the incidence of underweight children, but the government recognizes that it needs to better understand the nature of hardship in the country and develop ways to address it. In 2002, the government led a "Participatory Assessment on Hardship" to find out the needs, views, and hopes of communities living throughout the country, especially the disadvantaged and poor themselves. Two thirds of outer-islanders live on less than $1 a day A house made of scrap materials2 3 Not having enough to meet basic needs Ten sample communities were selected to represent both rural and urban areas and differing levels of access to services: four outer island communities on Ailinglaplap and Arno Atolls, three urban neighborhoods on Ebeye Island, and three communities on Majuro Atoll. One-on-one interviews, small group discussions, questionnaires, and case studies were used during the assessment to gather information from people in these communities, and discussions were held with government representatives and social, religious, and nongovernment organizations. A national workshop was held to discuss the assessment findings and formulate strategies and recommendations. The assessment was funded by the Asian Development Bank.

Since the late eighties, economic growth has been considered as the main objective of governments worldwide to project their public policies in favor of society, which has been related to employment, investment, poverty reduction and improvement of social welfare, despite the fact that, in reality, the discourse is far from what the poor people live in day to day. The Solow model is a model that originates from the neoclassical school, published in 1956 by Robert Solow in the article "A contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth", whose foundation lies in the growth of the capital stock, together with the growth population and accompanied by advances in technology, a model that in turn analyzes their influence on the level of production, under the assumptions of the neoclassical school (Morettini, 2009). The Solow model, despite being useful in explaining economic growth, presents its respective epistemological and methodological limitations. This model was successful at the time, but when opening the range of variables to consider, it does not enjoy intertemporal and interspatial validity, using microeconomic information to describe macroeconomic phenomena, as in the neoclassical assumptions, the variables are limited and said model is outdated before the expansion of knowledge, not picking up some transcendental aspects. The objective of this study is to explain the Solow model with their respective assumptions, present their respective limitations and the respective conclusions ; Desde finales de los años ochenta, el crecimiento económico se ha considerado como objetivo principal de los gobiernos a nivel mundial para proyectar sus políticas públicas a favor de la sociedad, el mismo que se lo ha relacionado con empleo, inversión, reducción de la pobreza y mejoría del bienestar social, pese a que, en la realidad, el discurso dista mucho de lo que los ciudadanos de escasos recursos viven en el día a día. El modelo de Solow es un modelo que se origina de la escuela neoclásica, publicada en 1956 por Robert Solow en el artículo "A contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth", cuyo fundamento radica en el crecimiento del stock de capital, conjuntamente con el crecimiento poblacional y acompañados con los avances de la tecnología, modelo que a su vez analiza la influencia de los mismos sobre el nivel de producción, bajo los supuestos de la escuela neoclásica (Morettini, 2009). El modelo de Solow pese a ser útil dentro de la explicación del crecimiento económico, presenta sus respectivas limitaciones tanto epistemológicas y metodológicas. Dicho modelo fue exitoso en su momento, pero al abrirse el abanico de variables a considerar, no goza de validez intertemporal e interespacial, utilizando información microeconómica para describir fenómenos macroeconómicos, tal y como en los supuestos neoclásicos, las variables son limitadas y dicho modelo está desactualizado ante la expansión del conocimiento, no recogiendo algunos aspectos trascendentales. El objetivo de este estudio, es explicar el modelo de Solow con sus respectivos supuestos, presentar sus respectivas limitaciones y las conclusiones respectivas.

As questions about racial reparations have entered public and political discourse again, research about the long-term impact of chattel slavery—so called "legacy of slavery" research—has taken on new significance. Over the past two decades researchers have identified direct quantitative links between slavery and a number of contemporary social and economic outcomes, including income, poverty, home ownership, school segregation, crime, educational inequality, and political polarization. Recently, however, researchers have begun to connect slavery to contemporary health outcomes, showing the legacy of slavery seems to stunt the health of black Americans while bolstering the health of white Americans. This manuscript builds on that recent research by examining the connection between subnational variation in the density of slavery and life expectancy in the American South. Using a variety of data sources, such as the US Census, American Community Survey (ACS), the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings, and spatially robust OLS regression analysis, I find that in southern counties where slavery was denser black life expectancy remains proportionally lower and white life expectancy remains proportionally higher than in southern counties where slavery was less dense.