Suchergebnisse

In an effort to disentangle the theoretical & empirical distinctness of poverty from constructs of extreme concentrated poverty, the differential impact of these measures on black & white homicide rates is assessed. Data are derived from the Urban Underclass Database, & the race-specific homicide rates are computed from information compiled in the Uniform Crime Report. Race-specific measures of poverty & poverty concentration are found to be highly correlated, challenging claims of their empirical distinctness. A closer inspection of the data, however, reveals that while poverty & poverty concentration affect the white homicide rate, only the traditional measure of poverty impacts black homicide. It is concluded that the finding of differential impacts of poverty & poverty concentration on black & white homicide rates is reflective of works by William J. Wilson (eg, 1987), Douglas S. Massey & colleagues (eg, 1994), as well as of criminological writings. Future research is needed to extend the study of poverty concentration in the area of measurement & the potential impact concentrated poverty may have on various types of crime & victimization. 3 Tables, 44 References. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractUsing data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the March Current Population Survey, we provide poverty estimates for 1967 to 2012 based on a historical supplemental poverty measure (SPM). During this period, poverty, as officially measured, has stagnated. However, the official poverty measure (OPM) does not account for the effect of near‐cash transfers on the financial resources available to families, an important omission since such transfers have become an increasingly important part of government antipoverty policy. Applying the historical SPM, which does count such transfers, we find that trends in poverty have been more favorable than the OPM suggests and that government policies have played an important and growing role in reducing poverty—a role that is not evident when the OPM is used to assess poverty. We also find that government programs have played a particularly important role in alleviating child poverty and deep poverty, especially during economic downturns.

Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the March Current Population Survey, we provide poverty estimates for 1967 to 2012 based on a historical Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). During this period, poverty, as officially measured, has stagnated. However, the official poverty measure (OPM) does not account for the effect of near-cash transfers on the financial resources available to families, an important omission since such transfers have become an increasingly important part of government anti-poverty policy. Applying the historical SPM, which does count such transfers, we find that trends in poverty have been more favorable than the OPM suggests and that government policies have played an important and growing role in reducing poverty—a role that is not evident when the OPM is used to assess poverty. We also find that government programs have played a particularly important role in alleviating child poverty and deep poverty, especially during economic downturns.

AbstractWhen measuring poverty in developed countries, the poverty line used to identify the poor is usually relative and set as a percentage of the median (or of the mean) of the total income. In consequence, when poverty is analyzed over a period of time, changes in the poverty level depend on the impact of evolving standards. To eliminate this effect, sometimes, an anchored poverty line is used. Furthermore, changes in the mean of the distribution and in the inequality among the poor may also affect the poverty levels. This note proposes a decomposition of the changes in poverty as the sum of four terms. The first two reflect the impact in poverty of changes in living standards and the other two measure the effect of the distributional growth and redistribution. This decomposition will help policymakers in the implementation of a more specific antipoverty agenda. An application with data from the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions shows the potential of the decomposition proposed.

Chile is an interesting country in which to study the relationship between poverty and subjective wellbeing, having experienced a remarkable fall in poverty over the past two decades. This paper explores how poverty status and transitions in and out of poverty contributed to life satisfaction in the late 2000s. Using new data for 2006 and 2009, we find that poor people were more dissatisfied with life than the non-poor and that income gains did not appreciably affect the satisfaction of the poor while they remained below the poverty line. People who were not poor in either period exhibited higher satisfaction than those who were poor in both periods, while those who escaped poverty between 2006 and 2009 exhibited higher satisfaction than those who remained poor. In addition, people who fell into poverty in 2009 were no more or no less satisfied with their lives than those who were poor in both periods. The evidence suggests poor people may not have adapted to their circumstances, in contrast to much literature exploring income dynamics and life satisfaction, and also that people–s recent experiences appear to affect their perceptions more than more distant ones.

This paper takes as its point of departure recent research that suggests propoor policies are more likely to be supported by central elites than local elites, and that, in contexts where there is significant decentralization of government, central government may need to challenge local elite resistance to ensure effective implementation of those policies. The paper explores whether poverty reduction strategies can be made more effective use of research to effect a 'reidentification' of the nature and causes of poverty. It focuses on Uganda, where research has had a high profile in the government's Poverty Eradication Action Plan, particularly through the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS), and the Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment Programme (UPPAP). The paper examines the methodology and impact of these research programmes. It argues that the UNHS could, with appropriate changes in how expenditure is interpreted in terms of well-being, be useful as an indicator of national poverty trends, but sample structure constrains its application as a means of monitoring decentralized delivery of povertyreduction programmes. The current UPPAP methodology provides a rich source of detail on the nature of poverty in Uganda, but the validity of its findings is undermined by emphasis on aggregation of local information to national level with consequent loss of contextualised understanding of social processes creating poverty. The paper argues that, in illuminating such processes, a more rigorous application of qualitative research method would challenge assumptions about the 'residual' nature of poverty that underlie both 'participatory research' and decentralization as a strategies of poverty reduction.