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The article has the objective to compare poverty rates of elderly people between 2018 and 2020, after the universalization of the non-contributory pension during the 2018-2024 presidential period in Mexico, in order to know if there is a change on elderly people's poverty rates. Also, the article aims to know if this policy change has a regressive impact in the whole pension system distribution. The paper uses as a reference for the analysis the International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines. It compares poverty of different social groups of elderly people in 2018 and 2020 using the National Survey of Households Income and Expenditure. The paper concludes that elderly people's poverty situation is better in 2020. However, there is an increase on inequality in pensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the different approaches and policies that are most used in the literature to measure the level of poverty with tools of fuzzy logic. These policies are based on the integrated measurement method (IM), which combines poverty line methods and unmet basic needs. Moreover, we present the most recent studies on the measurement of the level of poverty in different sectors and populations, as well as the more relevant conclusions of the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The content of this paper involves a crucial phenomenon in the analysis of the labor market: the description of adequate female employment in Ecuador. The present paper examines the relationship between the behavior of the female employment rate and the evolution of some of the most critical variables of direct selling firms in Ecuador, such as sales revenue, solvency ratio, liquidity ratio, and assets return. The panel data technique of dynamic mean groups [ardl (1,1,1)] was used to generate empirical evidence. It was found that the liquidity ratio, solvency ratio, and income of direct selling firms show an effect statistically significant on adequate female employment. However, it is considerably small, implying that the productive linkages generated by these firms do not tend to substantially impact the generation of better-quality jobs for women in Ecuador. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the main results of an investigation that inquire the ways in which the subjects of assistance are problematized, and the link established between popular sectors and the National State, from the arrival of the Alianza Cambiemos to the presidency between 2015 and 2019, in Argentina. Based on a set of theoretical tools of the Foucauldian scaffolding, and from a qualitative approach, the main problems that fuel the emergence and implementation of the national program «Estado en tu Barrio» are analyzed. The paper sustains that, in a context of deteriorating living and working conditions, this policy can be thought of as a government dispositive aimed at expanding local social-assistance interventions, individualizing the Statetarget population relationship and assisting to these populations under the imperative of urgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the automotive sector on the regional development of the Mexican lowlands region of Bajío. The staggered adoption of synthetic control methodology was used, considering the establishment of new automotive assembly plants in the states of the Bajío region between 2007 and 2014. It is estimated that for each new job created in automotive companies, an average of five additional jobs were created in the Bajío states, 78% outside the manufacturing sector. In addition, by promoting more significant economic opportunities, working poverty was reduced by an average of 10.5 percentage points. Finally, evidence was found that, in 2018, high school enrollment increased by 3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colombia is one of the most inequal countries in Latin America, which at the same time, is the most inequal region of the world. Even though this situation is discouraging it is not new, the difference lays on the importance that this situation has been taken in the political agenda in the nation, awakening multiple expectative between the citizens who has been the eternal losers: the poor. This paper focuses on the challenges that the new government of Gustavo Petro faces in matter of the inequality and poverty that affects over the half of the population in Colombia, at the same time provides a context of the Colombian case in the conjuncture of global and regional socioeconomic changes that incident on the chances of fulfill structural transformations at the social policy. Although this research acknowledges a large spectrum of inequalities existing in the territory (gender, generational, ethnic, racial) it focusses on the income inequality. This analysis takes place based on the data of specialized sources on the subject and the monitoring fluctuations of inequality in Colombia in the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the transformations that took place in Villa Barranca Yaco (Córdoba, Argentina) in the 1970s: subjectivation practices that existed before the coup, mutations it generated and the strategic sense these transformations had for the subsequent development of neoliberalism. Genealogy, as methodological theoretical framework, allows the construction of intelligibility over the conditions of possibility of the present, making the struggles that support it visible. Interviews with people linked to the neighborhood and analysis of secondary sources were conducted. The paper gives an account of a time prior to neoliberalism with characteristics opposed to the social fragmentation of the present, a time of active community. Then, the reorganizing genocide generated a destitution of collectivizing subjectivation practices. Destitution that is configured as a condition of possibility of a neoliberal society organized around individualism and competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household equivalence scales serve a key role in measuring income poverty. This paper analyzes poverty trends and levels under a set of alternative equivalence scales for Argentina and explores how the use of different scales modifies the demographic composition of the poor population. Results suggest that poverty levels are indeed affected by the choice of the scale, although trends are robust. There is evidence of changes in the demographic profile of the poor in favor of certain household types according to the scale employed. Results depend on how the poverty line is set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Cuba, the treatment of vulnerabilities in the population takes on a new tone in the current conditions. To address this social phenomenon, it is necessary to implement a methodological tool of proven effectiveness worldwide, such as the multidimensional measurement of poverty. This paper aims to explain the characteristics of multidimensional poverty measurement as a tool for improving government attention to vulnerabilities from public policies. The proposal of an Observatory as a way to achieve this task. Among the results of the work are: the elaboration of an instrument for the registration of socioeconomic information in the homes of the municipality, the formation of capacities in institutions and the municipal government, the development of a mobile application and a computer software for capturing, transmission, processing and dissemination of data collected at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: the aim of this paper is to test a sociology of welfare; that is, two analytical tools are argued to gain an understanding of the sociological content of welfare: 1) the identification of the forms of social precariousness existing in Mexico; 2) the idea of the continuum of inequality of violence and its visibility. Methodology: in defending their theory, the authors use analytical and qualitative sociology as a methodological perspective, where classical concepts of sociology function as reflexive tools to promote the elaboration of a qualitative, critical and normative thinking around the forms of precariousness and their opposite, welfare. Results: presented in two sections: 1) The emergence of violence as a structure for the precariousness of life, a section that reflects on the increase in the forms of violence and their importance when addressing the issue of well-being; 2) Analysis of the forms of social precariousness, which proposes a matrix of the main forms of precariousness that actually exist in Mexico, where the elements of the continuum of inequality of violence are identified. Conclusions: it is proposed that a qualitative sociological knowledge of social precariousness and violence, of the forms and dynamics of social action is necessary to understand the substantive meaning of welfare; useful knowledge to guide public actions in favor of welfare in democratic societies, especially to test innovation in the design of social policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts forward a threefold proposal relating to the ethics exposed by Henry Thoreau in Walden: (1) the definition of his concept of luxury, in light of how the subject has been approached from various historical and philosophically relevant positions; (2) the recognition of poverty as a fundamental concept for Thoreau's ethical proposal in Walden and the aims of thoreauvian economy, and (3) a reading of Walden as a structured text that goes from the individual requirements of human life to social and cultural necessities. These three points will be connected through the critical practice of voluntary poverty that Thoreau argues for, in the sense of a pragmatic doubt about the habits and search for the necessary elements of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an analysis of Juvenal’s XIV Satire based on the expressions avarus felix and pauper beatus, which shape a relevant dilemma to the interpretation of the Satire. First, I will evaluate avarus felix, looking to show that, besides being an incompatibility, it holds the notion of egestas, which would lower the individual to the moral quality of a slave. Second, I will point out that along the Satire XIV several pictures show individuals under that very conception of needed beings, so that no matter how much they show themselves publicly as free romans, in a moral level they are quite the contrary. Finally, I will evaluate pauper beatus and explain that true wealth is not the indiscriminate amassing of goods but sufficiency achieved through those owned. Thus, the relation shown by Juvenal between morality and wealth would be mediated by the ideas of sufficiency and necessity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes some of the principal perspectives to understand poverty. I take into consideration some of the initiatives of the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, as well as some of the academia and specific research centers in this field. The scope of this article is to approach poverty from the perspective of Catholic Social Doctrine to underline that this problem is more than a material issue, it is a moral and anthropologic problem. When understood in terms of a moral and anthropologic problem, poverty is translated as violence, corruption, damage to life and to people in need etc. The point of this paper is to show that anthropologic poverty always gives place to economic poverty, but not the other way around. Economic poverty does not always generate anthropologic poverty. This is because families with few economic resources can actually live on values that allow them to have a good life. In this paper I take into consideration some of the general solutions currently given to poverty, stressing the importance of multiplying human relationships in benefit of a greater social knowledge. The conclusions of this paper explain that people in a specific society reach development not when all of them do the same thing, but when each person is able to undertake their specific task in the best possible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the results of a socio-pedagogical study in a public secondary school situated in a context of urban poverty in the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A qualitative methodology is used to recover elements of ethnography and audiovisual production through a documentary film workshop. This is a collaborative effort that explores audiovisual language as a research practice that allows us to use different forms of narration. We reflect on the students’ ways of saying when they take the camera. Our hypothesis is that the way in which students construct their narratives constitutes a narrative that is told by action and that is driven by and through images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After its political independence in 1956, Morocco faced different socio-economic problems. This paper shows the development policy implemented in the country, especially that related to the fight against poverty and inequalities. Development policy is analyzed from the first years of independence to 2004. The few good results obtained forced the national government to face such problems through a new development model. Thus, since 2005, the National Initiative for Human Development (NIHD) was initiated. However, this research shows that the NIHD's investments have been directed mainly to the most populated areas and have a null impact on the indicators that measure social problems such as poverty. Therefore, it is clear that the NHRI is not the "magic" solution to the social issue in the country. Regarding the methodology, quantitative and qualitative information has been combined. The first allows for the extraction of indicators for its graphic and cartographic representation and the second allows for an analysis of the assessments expressed by the public actors involved in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream economic theory is replete with assumptions that feed into structural or systemic racism. It supports an economic system that severely disadvantages people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, which in the U.S. includes a disproportionate number of Hispanics, indigenous people, and descendants of slaves ((would Afro-Americans be more appropriate?)). The paper discusses 15 such assumptions that are generally trivialized, including the crucial role information costs play in decision making. In turn, costly information implies that its acquisition by poor people requires a greater share of their income, making it more difficult for them to make well-informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first analyzes the performance of Latin America during the long economic cycle that took place between 1998 and 2014, which combined the regional effects of the Asian crisis with a growth phase driven by a supercycle of commodity prices. However, the expansionary phase was followed by a five-year period of economic stagnation, during which previous achievements were weakened, even before the covid-19 crisis erupted, with its negative consequences. This confirms the persistence of the region's economic vulnerability to external shocks, as well as the difficulties in maintaining sustained growth rates associated with processes of structural change, which make it possible to reduce the gap in the development levels vis-à-vis the leading countries and face the challenges of environmental sustainability. It is also pointed out that, despite the important achievements in terms of social development during the recent growth cycle, the high structural inequalities that characterize the region were not broken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe a group of families of a low socio-economic status in which child abuse and sexual abuse has been identified, linking such infringement of children rights with family stressors and social support to analyze the implications such link has for psychosocial interventions. The sample was composed by 40 adults who had children and adolescents under their care who receive help from services specialized in child abuse in Uruguay. It was found that the families studied had high socioeconomic vulnerability, childcare mainly done by women, children who had experienced polyvictimization, a high number of stressors and a low perception of social support. Conclusions drawn outline the importance of considering these variables when designing intervention programs that focus on promoting changes in parental practices that can be long lasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite more than twenty years of implementation of Conditional Cash Transfers (ccts) inequality and poverty remain being one of the main problems of Latin America. These programs seek to stimulate consumption and reduce poverty and have become the axis of articulation of social protection in most of the countries of the region, incorporating logics of resource management and financing, and new actors and discourses on poverty. This paper critically presents the recent literature on ccts and analyzes the trajectories and approaches of the programs. The paper also analyses changes and continuities in the perspectives on poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the different dimensions of women's empowerment that can arise during the entrepreneurial process. It considers the changes in these dimensions as women advance in the development of their new ventures, differentiating characteristics according to the context (urban or rural). Another contribution refers to which empowerment factors developed by female entrepreneurs are key to reducing poverty. The proposal develops a multiple correspondence analysis and an ordered probit model, with data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Colombia. The results make it possible to identify what is needed to strengthen the empowerment of women through entrepreneurship, and the resources available for this. Furthermore, the relationship found between economic empowerment factors and family income provides evidence for the importance of empowerment for poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: "Middle class" is a polysemic social category. In methodological terms, it is similar to that of poverty, both without consensus according to literature. A comprehensive review of literature is made in this paper, emphasizing on single and multidimensional methodologies, identifying non-consensual findings when using and building thresholds and different dimensions. Methodology: This paper proposes identification of Mexican Middle Class according to a multidimensional perspective, consistent with Coneval's multidimensional poverty measurement method (2009), where income is a necessary but not enough condition of security and none vulnerability. "Latent-class models" are built based upon the Coneval's Rights and Well-being indicators that identified the ratio of population that could be considered middle classes. Five categories are obtained: population in multidimensional poverty, vulnerable population by income, vulnerable population due to social deprivation, middle classes and rich population. Results: Among the main findings, there is evidence that Mexico continues to be a country of poor, rather than middle class people. The number of people in poverty is 2.3 times greater than that of middle class, while the status and conditions of life guaranteeing security and not economic vulnerability, characteristic of the middle class, is only due for a little more of a quarter of the total population, 27.5%. This paper presents findings on the evolution of the middle class, which grows between 2000-2006, before the food and economic-financial crisis of 2006 and 2008, but never reaches levels above 50%. After crisis years, it begins its descent again to levels similar to 1994, showing its vulnerability to economic crisis. Conclusions: As a conclusion sustainability of middle classes over time in Mexico depends both on an effective and efficient policy to fight against poverty, and on specific policy about middle classes, which actually in Mexico and Latin American countries does not exist. This means that the broadest layers of the population, in the same way as in developed countries, have access to a living wage that guarantees well-being, effective health services, quality education, access to the credit market and financial services, as well as adequate and dignified pension system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the mechanisms used by four sisters to request a license to make bread with the image of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos that could be used as relics by pilgrims. Said document was made and written by the Márquez sisters: Gertrudis, Paula, Inés and María. The elements used by these women consist of managing their gender role as a tool to obtain the license to manufacture the rolls. In turn, these ladies sought to earn some money, contribute to the salvation of the pilgrims, that they carry a relic to their places of origin. In short, they sought to perform a common good for the faithful of the image of the virgin of San Juan de los Lagos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistence of high poverty levels in Latin America, after a decade of retraction, brings the issue back to the center of the regional social agenda. This paper examines various factors that reproduce poverty, based on the Argentinian case. Using a quantitative design and multivariate techniques, this study explores the effects of structural heterogeneity of occupational systems in household economic reproduction under different political-economic phases. The results demonstrate the persistence of marked inequalities in occupational structure -even after a period of high growth- and the rigidity of the labor income distribution pattern. The heterogeneity of the occupational structure determines the reproductive capacities of households and causes selective processes of impoverishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the effects of economic growth on inequality and poverty in the municipalities of the state of Nayarit, Mexico, in the period 1990-2010. The municipal evolution of each one of the variables is analyzed using inferential statistics, and the type of relationship between them is determined. Through linear regressions, its intercausality is established. The conclusion is that there is an inverse relationship between economic growth and the three types of income poverty, and a direct relationexpansion rates of gross domestic product per capita) and income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I try to understand how do the social inclusion/exclusion processes deploy among children in a marginality context. What does "including" mean? Which are the frontiers between identity and difference at school? How do children's subjectivities produce? I use psychoanalytical theory, that postulates the existence of an unconscious dimension in human experience, where the processes of subjectivation would deploy. I realized a visual and interpretative school ethnography during 7 months, shifting the gaze from the adults' world to the children's subjectivities. The field research, the children's visual productions and the children's group interviews reveal the importance of destructivity and death in the setting of identities and differences. In this context of poverty, social inclusion of children would firstly consist of belonging to the living's community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the academic field has been improved by numerous contributions related to the concept and measurement of population well-being. Among such improvements, the concept of living conditions has played a central role. In this paper we observe the associations between living conditions and relate this concept to the notion of health contexts based on an eco-epidemiological model. For this purpose, a methodological proposal was developed and applied to the Argentine population, identifying areas of improvement, worsening and persistence of living conditions between 2001 and 2010. Finally, the proposal was validated with a classic indicator of poverty measurement and the course of living conditions was analyzed in the most critical jurisdictions of the territory through the use of an infant mortality indicator that operates on the concept of "poverty diseases". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sustains that between 1990 and 2016, development of tourisim in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, has not improved the living standards of the local population. Thus, through the analisis of statistical official data and theoretical documents, it can be demonstrated that the development of tourisim has not solved the high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To describe the methodological design of the National Health and Nutrition Survey in localities with less than 100 000 inhabitants (Ensanut 100k). Materials and methods. The Ensanut 100k is a probabilistic survey that over-represents households with less economic capabilities. This paper describes the scope of the survey, sampling procedures, measurement and inference and logistics organization. Results. 10 461 home interviews and 26 161 individual interviews were obtained. The household response rate was 89 and 92% from individuals. Conclusions. The probabilistic design of the Ensanut 100k allows to make valid statistical inferences about parameters of interest for public health in localities with less than 100 000 inhabitants, localities where 52% of the population lives according to the 2010 census. The comparability of the results with the Ensanut 2012 facilitates the assessment of the government's support actions to populations with lower economic capacities in the period 2012-2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objetive of this paper is to determine the enabling conditions for exercising participatory budgets in Bogotá. An analysis of the citizen participation regulatory framework in Colombia is introduced in order to understand the existent conditions for the execution of democratic budgets. After, a diagnostic of the main national and international citizen participation programs is completed using Arnstein’s “participatory ladder”, highlighting the failures in promoting citizen participation and in the development of participatory budgets. Finally, the last chapter presents a proposal to synthetize conditions that will enable the development of citizen budgets as well as the lessons learnt from international and national cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a reflection towards the territorial scope as an analysis tool that allows, for the migration studies, to address the particularities of the places of origin of migrants to understand why mobility processes appear, as well as the repercussions that these entail. For this reason, the case of the Sierra Gorda of Guanajuato, a region with high levels of marginalization and contrasts of migration, is presented, which makes it possible to question the relationship between poverty and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading speed is achieved based on automatic word recognition and, together with prosody, constitutes an essential link between word recognition and text comprehension. Despite the relevance of reading speed acquisition for success at school, a high percentage of children growing up in poverty contexts face difficulties in achieving automatic word recognition. Consequently, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of difficulties in reading speed acquisition in children growing in poverty contexts. Two studies were designed. In the first study, in order to explore the origin of difficulties in developing word reading speed, a comparison of the cognitive profiles of children from low-income backgrounds with and without difficulties in this ability was carried out. In a previous study, norms were obtained for accuracy and speed in a word reading test. Participants were 168 6th grade children from several educational institutions attending children growing up in poverty contexts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the present study, the same word reading test was administered to 96 6th grade children. Based on the norms obtained in the previous study, two groups of children were identified: a group who performed at or above the 50th percentile in reading accuracy but below the 30th percentile in reading speed and another group performing at or above the 50th percentile in both measures. The first group was made up of 22 children, and the second one, of 46 children. The remaining 28 children were not included in the study because they performed below the 50th percentile in reading accuracy. Additional tests measuring phonological awareness, rapid naming, verbal memory and word spelling were administered to children in both groups. Between-groups comparisons in these tasks showed that children with speed acquisition difficulties underperformed the other group in the tests tapping phonological awareness, rapid naming and spelling. These results suggest that the children in the group experiencing reading difficulties were still using the phonological route for word recognition. The second study aimed to explore whether a specifically designed educational intervention could enable children with low reading speed from the previous study to increase their reading speed. Both groups of children (with and without reading speed difficulties) were administered two additional reading tests: an experimental test comprising target words which would subsequently be included in the training study for the children with reading speed difficulties; and a reading test of additional words and pseudo words not targeted in the training study, but considered transfer items because they comprised sub lexical units that were included in the target words to be trained during the intervention. These same reading tests were re-administered as a post-test, after the reading intervention for the reading speed difficulties group. The training study aimed to promote reading speed via the acquisition of orthographic representations. The intervention involved two weekly individual sessions lasting 20 minutes each. Each child participated of a total of 15 sessions. Each session included repeated and accelerated reading of lexical units, as well as activities for promoting the analysis of sublexical units included in the target words and also present in the transfer pseudo words from the post-test. The comparison between the pre- and posttest performance of the training group showed a statistically significant increase in reading speed both of trained and transfer words, an increase that was not obtained for the comparison group. This result suggests that during the intervention children were able to develop orthographic representations of the trained lexical units, but also of the sub lexical units that were present in both the target and the transfer words. Educational implications from this study point to the importance of repeated and accelerated reading for increasing speed, a critical reading ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributions made by social programs for decreasing poverty in Bolivia and Ecuador, countries related to the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América -Tratado de Comercio de los Pueblos (ALBA-TCP) (Bolivarian Alliance for Peoples of our America- Trade Treaty of Peoples) draw attention of experts. But the occurrence of these programs in underdeveloped countries sets out the problem of sustainability, which gets worse by the decrease in prices and the demands of their exportable products, the right wing strengthening, Neoliberalism and proliferation of economic blocs. The aim of this paper is to evaluate how those programs fit to the socioeconomic base, through the assessment of their economies and their socio-productive structure in the selected countries. As ALBA-TCP supported implementation of social programs, reference will be made to the social programs promoted by this alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last few decades, scholars, international institutions, and national governments have turned their attention to poverty and inequality. This has been clearly shown in an international debate thereon conducted from different theoretical and ideological points of view. The consensus is that there is a need to combat extreme poverty, but prevailing approaches thereto have focused mainly on how this manifests itself, and not on its causes. Causes of poverty and inequality were explained by Marx 150 years ago, when he formulated the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. Although poverty and inequality are inherent in the development of capitalist system, they are seen and combated differently, as they start to be against the interests of that system. This paper is aimed at disclosing the reasons for the current emphasis on poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of the increase in female employment on income distribution in Uruguay between 1991 and 2012. In particular, this paper studies the impact on inequality and poverty. The methodology employed is a micro-decomposition proposed by Bourguignon et al. (1998). This methodology allows to partially capture the effect of the increase on female employment and to distinguish between effects generated by changes in employment status and those produced by changes in worked hours. Results suggest that, the increase in female employment has had statistically significant effects, despite not being the most important when it comes to explaining the evolution of income distribution. Changes in female employment contributed to reducing poverty levels throughout the period studied and, although it had modest results on de concentration of income at the beginning of the period, effects were more pronounced towards the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the main characteristics of the rural population in Costa Rica in light of the National Household Survey (ENAHO 2017), paying attention to socioeconomic variables such as education, employment, income, migration and poverty. It also provides a series of elements and reflections related to the repositioning of rural territories in terms of governance and citizen action and the need to carry out a strategy to boost local and rural employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of Chiapas has historically been a priority target in the fight against poverty. Currently, however, 76% of the population continues to be impoverished. The objective of this paper is to distinguish poverty profiles at the municipal level and propose differentiated public policies. The methodology combines multivariate analysis and geographic information systems. We obtained four composites or poverty profiles, which are presented with maps and differentiated public policy proposals. We conclude that given the intensity of poverty in Chiapas, it should continue to be a priority for poverty-reduction efforts. Yet to achieve results in the long term, the particularities of each profile should be considered, since in each case different measures may have greater priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic crisis has forced some Spaniards to apply for social aid. Although it is not possible to adequately quantify how many people are in food deprivation, it is a problem that needs to be diagnosed given its severity. This paper explores the way in which this group manages food aid in a context that is new to them in a double sense: it is the first time that they find themselves without resources to solve their daily needs and this is the first time they request aid social. The data come from in-depth interviews conducted with 14 people who have participated in a food emergency program in 2012. It has been shown that people with severe material deprivation manage food aid with expertise. Nonetheless, this effort does not meet their basic needs because they prioritize other payments before food. It has also been seen that they perceive their situation as provisional and show indignation towards a situation of which they feel victims. They hope to leave this situation through the employment and not through the institutional aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the levels of perception of poverty and perceived social support in 1334 Paraguayan adolescents, 609 men and 725 women, aged between 12 and 18 years old (M=14.99; DE= 1.66). The results show that the variables are related: the higher the perception of poverty, the lower the perceived social support. The regression analysis allows us to predict one variable from the value of another. There were no correlations between age and the studied variables, but there were significant differences in the scales of perception of poverty and perceived social support compared to age ranges, where adolescents aged 16 to 18 got higher scores. Moreover, there were significant differences in terms of sex, where men have higher scores in scales of social support of friends and others. There were no significant differences related to family social support and age. It is relevant to point out the importance of designing public policies that strengthen the aid within socially excluded communities, since the results show that the social support is a resource perceived by adolescents to cope with situations of vulnerability and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Social Infrastructure Fund (FAIS), created since 1998, is a conditional transfer distributed by the Mexican federal government between state and municipal governments to reduce poverty. The assignation formula used until 2013, distributed the Fund according to the relative poverty of each state in relation to the national poverty. This design did not generate the appropriate incentives to reduce poverty. Methods: Based on a principal-agent model, and explicitly acknowledging the informational asymmetry between the federal and sub national levels of government, in this paper we propose a formula to assign the Fund, which has two fundamental characteristics: the FAIS is distributed using the relative poverty of states / municipalities; and includes a component to avoid the perverse incentive of the formula used until 2013. Results: A mechanism is designed and used as the theoretical basis to construct a formula to assign the transfer. Conclusions: In order to achieve the proposed impact of the governmental programs financed with federal transfers, it is important to design and implement the mechanisms to align the incentives of the different governmental levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the conceptions of Jose Maria Bengoa on poverty. Firstly, the analysis takes into account the initial reflections of Bengoa on poverty published in his seminal work "Medicina Social en el medio rural venezolano" in 1940. In this publication, Bengoa presents his first interpretations on the characteristics of poverty, especially those associated with family income. In the next section, the paper analyzes the contents presented by Bengoa in a conference at USB in 1990. In the conference, Bengoa points out the relevant features of the evolution of poverty in the context of Latin America and Venezuela and proposes alternatives to improve the design of programs in this area of social policy. Finally, the paper presents major implications for action in the current social policy agenda in Venezuela [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper informs an investigation which had as objective to establish the functionalrelationships between mental health and social capital in people who have been victims of forced displacement in the context of the armed conflict, and people in poverty conditions.The social capital is understood from the proposal of Putnam (1993), such as the commitment that occurs between actors and social groups where there are networks and standardsthat facilitate collaboration, the commitment and confidence; through which you can set changes. For the present study, account is taken of the observable variables, measures through the Barometer of Social Capital developed by Sudarsky (2007) and worked in the third measurement of social capital in 2011, in the report presented by Hurtado, García, and Copete (2013), which gives an account of three factors: Solidarity, consolidation of groups and the construction ofsocial fabric (Ksocial), institutional trust and social control (Confie) and credibility in sources of non-validated information (Fenoval). Mental health in research responds to the model of the entire state of health proposed by Keyes (2005b),which assumes the understanding of mental health as a state of well-being, more than the absence of disease, composed of three factors that for terms of the study are the observable variables that make part of the latent variable of mental health, these are: Spanish Adaptation of the Scales of Psychological Well-being of Ryff (Díaz, Rodríguez-Carvajal, Blanco, Moreno-Jiménez, Gallardo, Valle & Van Dierendonk, 2006) which focuses on the personal development, by which envisaged dimensions like the autoaceptación, positive relationships, autonomy, the domain of the environment, the personal growth and the project of life (Blanco &Valera, 2007); the SubjectiveWell-being (Diener, 1984), constitutes the cognitive and affective evaluations that a person generates around to his life and converges the aspects of the satisfaction and the positive emotions-negative (Blanco & Valera, 2007) and Social Welfare (Keyes, 1998), understood as the value that we of the circumstances and the operation that we have within the society. Includes items such as integration, acceptance, the contribution, the update and the social coherence. The study was retrospective exposfact type and counted 380 adults, classified in two groups: 190 in situation of displacement and 190 in situation of poverty. The instruments were the Scales Psychological Wellbeing (Ryff, 1989); Satisfaction with Life (Diener, 1994); Social Welfare (Keyes, 1998), and the Barometer of Social Capital (Sudarsky, 1999). Subsequently, an analysis was carried out with the SPSS software 18 to establish correlations and functional relationships of the variablesin the study groups. The findings give account of the significant correlations between the constituent dimensions of social capital and mental health. In second instance presentsthe functional relationshipsimplementing structural equation modelsin each group, assuming a positive functional relationship between social capital and mental health, which is maintained in each of the groups of study, being higher in the group of displaced persons(β = .56) in comparison with the group of poverty (β = .41). These findings allowed to demonstrate that the functional relationships analyzed structurally between social capital and mental health are directly proportional and constitute an input to the development of psychosocial intervention programs aimed at the improvement of the quality of life and social empowerment community. This research is a systematic input ofstructural analysis of the functional relationships between Social Capital and Mental Health, to strengthen the horizon of future studies thatshould be directed to deepen the analysis of the complex reality that people live in a situation of vulnerability,such asisthe case of those who have experienced the forced displacement by effect of the armed conflict and those who have lived in poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poverty remains one of the major international challenges as reflected in the commitments adopted by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda. In order to fight against it, international development agencies have fostered decentralization reforms that have been applied throughout the world. This means that, the analysis of the effects of fiscal decentralization on poverty has become a research area of extraordinary academic interest, but one that has produced conflicting findings. This paper aims to analyse the effect on poverty of fiscal decentralization of spending in education, health, housing, and social protection. Methods: We estimate a fixed effect model by Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) using unbalanced panel data of countries. Results: The decentralization of spending has a differentiated effect on poverty: the decentralization of health and housing policies contributes to reduce poverty, while the decentralization of social protection spending stimulates an increase in poverty. Conclusions: The hypothesis of the classical theory on decentralization is endorsed in the areas of health and housing. On the other hand, the prediction of the normative theory of the public economy is ratified in the area of the social protection. So, for each country, which social policies to decentralize and the allocation of resources among jurisdictions should be analysed with great detail to avoid problems of targeting strategy, accountability and responsibility assignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Using standard fiscal incidence analysis and the new methodological developments by the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Institute, this paper estimates the impact of fiscal policy on inequality and poverty in sixteen countries in Latin America around 2010. Methods: With information on incomes, consumption, and other dimensions available in household surveys, and knowledge about the characteristics of the fiscal system, the CEQ method consists in allocating to each individual the burden of personal income and consumption taxes, and the benefits from cash transfers, consumption subsidies, and government spending on education and health. This process yields the pre-fiscal and post-fiscal income concepts of interest. These income concepts, in turn, are used to calculate the corresponding indicators of inequality and poverty. Thus, one can estimate, for each country, the impact of the fiscal system and each of its components on inequality and poverty. Since the methodology that was applied is the same, results are comparable across countries. Results: The countries that redistribute the most are Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru are the countries that redistribute the least. Fiscal policy reduces extreme (income) poverty in twelve out of the sixteen countries. The incidence of poverty after taxes, subsidies, and cash transfers, however, is higher than market income poverty in Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, even though fiscal policy reduces inequality in these four countries. Contributory pensions have a heterogeneous effect on inequality and, contrary to some expectations, their impact is equalizing in nine of the countries. In the sixteen countries, spending on pre-school and primary education is equalizing and pro-poor (per capita benefits decline with income per capita). Spending on secondary education is always equalizing; it is also pro-poor in some of the countries. Spending on tertiary education is never pro-poor but it is equalizing in all the countries except for Guatemala. Spending on health is always equalizing but pro-poor only in some countries. Conclusions: Latin America presents a great deal of heterogeneity in the size of the state and the countries' capacity to use their fiscal power to reduce inequality and poverty. A higher share of social spending (to GDP) is associated with a larger redistributive effect but countries with similar, or even lower, shares of social spending show heterogeneous redistributive effects implying that other factors beyond size such as the composition and targeting of social spending (and taxes) are at play. It is important to emphasize that a higher redistributive effect is not necessarily a desirable outcome since in this article there is no estimation of the impact of redistributive policy on fiscal sustainability and efficiency. In some countries, the burden of consumption taxes is such that a portion of the poor are net payers into the fiscal system (before receiving "in kind" transfers in education and health). Governments should examine whether this undesirable effect could be avoided, or at least reduced, through an expansion of targeted cash transfers and/or reduction in the consumption taxes that are particularly burdensome for the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to draw attention on the political origin of the concept of development. It shows that, more than a concept, development could be understood as a paradigm that determines the way we see, define and intervene the world. Moreover, the paper makes a historical review of how gender perspective has been included in the study of poverty, and the resulting policies directed to attend this phenomenon. Additionally, the paper mentions the contributions of gender perspective to the study of poverty in an ampler sense than the intervention one. Finally, it presents further questions about the course that poverty studies with a gender perspective should follow, and the need of a new paradigm -altemative to the development one- that will help us understand, redefine and change social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes Latin American neoextractivism, or the advance of raw materials exports in Latin America, from the perspective of classical and contemporary theory, and explains that before a break, it's the deepening of the model of liberal economy instrumented in different periods in the whole region, so changes are not expected in the dynamics or structure of the economy. The economic and social effects are analyzed from the theories of Dutch Disease and Curse of Natural Resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty reduction has been a subject widely discussed and analyzed by different academic disciplines, however, so far has not found a magic formula to mitigate this problem. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the contribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the eradication of poverty in developing countries. The main result of this work is that technological change is an important factor for the reduction of poverty and inequality in the Latin American region. For ICTs to increase the total factor productivity of each country, policies are needed to improve the quality of education, protection of property rights and access to ICTs for households and for public and private enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the recent literature on the methodologies that have been used to evaluate the distributive and poverty effects of trade liberalization in Latin America. Our survey classifies the large number of papers on the subject according to the welfare measure they use: inequality (on wages and household income) or poverty. Our survey shows that a sound methodological approach evaluating the welfare effects of trade liberalization should take into account: the degree of tariff to price transmission, all income sources (not only wages), employment effects, gender and regional heterogeneity of the impact of trade, and second-order as well as general equilibrium effects. Two methodologies represent the latest efforts in this direction: (1) Income generation models with an explicit relationship between changes in tariff and changes in household real income (Porto, 2007), which are capable of testing the different transmission channels linking trade policy and inequality and poverty; (2) The Macro-Micro approach (Bourguingon et al, 2008), which combines a CGE with a micro-simulation model, evaluates the welfare effects of trade policy, taking into account general equilibrium effects. These two approaches can be combined to get the short- and long-term welfare effects of trade policy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to present fuzzy sets theory as a reliable and straightforward methodology to measure poverty, which offers comparative advantages with respect to traditional methods. This paper also shows that fuzzy sets methodology is compatible with census data information to compute poverty indexes. Results of measuring poverty at state, municipal and town levels are presented for the case of Mexico and are compared with official results. Comparison reveals that fuzzy sets theory is an alternative that solve some of the methodological problems present in poverty lines and marginalization indexes, which makes it a helpful tool to evaluate and implement policies aimed at tackling poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews different contributions in the literature on advances and conceptual-methodological dilemmas in the study of poverty from a gender perspective. The paper also comments on the problems raised by this review from an analytical perspective, and its possible implications for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on long-term collaborative ethnographic fieldwork in a shantytown called Flammable located in Argentina, this paper examines residents' perceptions of their highly polluted surroundings. Using a case study to explore the relationship between objective space and subjective representations (habitat and habitus), the paper: a) describes the widespread confusion that dominates shantytown dwellers' views of contamination, and b) argues that this confusion translates into self-doubts, division, stigma, and a continual waiting time. The paper ends with an empirically-grounded speculation regarding the sources of toxic uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]