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Abstract The paper critically reviews the arguments for and against both employment guarantees and income guarantees when viewed as rights-based policy instruments for poverty reduction in a developing economy. Decentralized implementation of the right-to-work poses serious challenges in poor places. Evidence on India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act does not suggest that the potential for either providing work when needed or reducing current poverty is realized, despite pro-poor targeting. Instead, work is often rationed by local leaders, and the poverty impact is small when all the costs are considered. The option of income support using cash transfers also has both pros and cons. Widely-used methods for finely targeting cash transfers tend to miss many poor people, and can discourage those reached from earning extra income. Yet it cannot be presumed that switching to a universal basic income will reduce poverty more than workfare or finely-targeted transfers. That is an empirical question and the answer will undoubtedly vary across settings, belying the generalizations often heard from advocates. Nonetheless, more incentive-neutral, universal and/or state-contingent transfer schemes merit consideration in settings in which existing public spending is skewed against poor people and/or there is scope for raising taxes on the rich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • I examine the targeting performance of and access to social pensions in India. • Exclusion of poor older people continues to be a widespread problem. • The overall benefits from targeting are very limited. • Below Poverty Line (BPL) card as eligibility criterion can be misused by non-poor individuals. • Poor older people lacking a BPL card and/or political connections appear to be left behind. Abstract Whether social transfers should be targeted or universal is an unsolved debate particularly relevant for the implementation of social protection schemes in developing countries. While the limited availability of public resources encourages targeting, the difficulty to identify the poor promotes a universal allocation of benefits. To address this question, this study examines the targeting performance of and access to a social welfare scheme for an increasingly vulnerable group – India's poor older people. The results show that during a time period of social pension reforms, exclusion and inclusion errors were successfully reduced but the exclusion of poor older people continues to be extremely high. Comparing the existing targeting approach to a random allocation, I show that the benefits of targeting are limited. The reforms aimed at increasing the transparency of social pension allocation indeed made the Below Poverty Line ration card the most important determinant of access to social pensions for older people. However, this focus on the ration card promoted by the national government has its own weaknesses. Non-poor older people exploit the unwarranted possession of this ration card and results suggest that after the reforms individuals with direct connections to local government officials are more likely to access social pension benefits. The current targeting approach seems to be beneficial for well-connected older individuals while many poor older people typically lacking these connections lag behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The emphasis on rights that individual citizens can claim from the state represents a significant institutional development for poverty alleviation policies. In India, important legislation was passed in 2005 to guarantee rural households 100 days of work paid at a statutory wage rate. This Right to Work legislation has enabled the implementation of the world’s largest public works program—the “Mahatma Gandhi” National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS. This study explores variation in policy outcomes under NREGS within a rural district of North India (Uttar Pradesh). It finds that this variation is the product of the interaction between formal and informal institutions. As such, the demand for work benefits does not emerge spontaneously from self-selecting rural citizens, but is articulated by local elected officials who are pressurised to accommodate demands for rents from the bureaucracy. Specifically, local elected officials are compelled to proceed to a selective activation of the demand for benefits to ensure the generation of a surplus which will form the basis of bureaucratic rent payments. The study relies on qualitative data, specifically interviews with past beneficiaries of the scheme, bureaucrats tasked with policy implementation, and elected village leaders (the Gram Pradhans in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) to document the conditions under which a surplus is extracted and rent payments made. The study shows that caste and political leadership structures at the local level affect the generation of surpluses and the payment of rents by Gram Pradhans to the bureaucracy. While the Right to Work legislation represents progress for poverty alleviation, policies such as NREGS that emphasize rights and the expression of a demand for benefits need to consider more carefully the conditions under which this demand emerges as well as the ways in which discretionary authority can thwart the goals of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We demonstrate that it is theoretically ambiguous whether growth of cities matters more to the rural poor than growth of towns. We then test empirically whether the economic growth of India’s secondary towns mattered more to recent rural poverty reduction than did growth of the big cities. Satellite observations of night lights are used to measure urban growth on both extensive and intensive margins in the context of a spatial Durbin fixed-effects model of poverty measures for rural India, calibrated to a panel of 59 regions observed four times over 1993–2012. Lit area expansion had more effect on rural poverty measures than did intensive margin growth in terms of the brightness of light from urban areas. For India’s current stage of development, growth of secondary towns may do more to reduce rural poverty than does big city growth although our theoretical model suggests that cities may eventually take over from towns as the drivers of rural poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The study examines the dynamic nature of movements into and out of poverty over a period when poverty has fallen substantially in India. The analysis identifies people who escaped poverty and those who fell into it over the period 2005–12. Using panel data from the India Human Development Survey for 2005 and 2012, we find that the risks of marginalized communities such as Dalits and Adivasis of falling into or remaining in poverty were higher than those for more privileged groups. Some, but not all of these higher risks are explained by educational, financial, and social disadvantages of these groups in 2005. Results from a logistic regression show that some factors that help people escape poverty differ from those that push people into it and that the strength of their effects varies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary In the context of climate change and its effect on poverty, previous studies have shown that productivity shocks in agriculture, such as rainfall variability, affect wages adversely. None of the studies, however, consider the heterogeneity in the impact of these shocks on agricultural wages by gender, a feature which has been studied for demand shocks in urban labor markets for developed countries. Using National Sample Survey data for India from 1993 to 2007, a district-level panel dataset is created to examine how a rainfall shock affects the gender wage gap. The study shows that both female and male wages are positively related to rainfall shocks. Hence, future studies must study the impact of labor market shocks in rural areas on both female and male wages separately. It also finds that the female-to-male wage ratio is significantly positively associated with a rainfall shock in regions where rainfed rice is cultivated, i.e., low (high) rainfall reduces (increases) the female-to-male ratio. The study demonstrates that this result is due to a positive association of demand for female labor with rainfall in these rainfed rice-growing regions. This finding is consistent with the greater marginal value of female labor in rice cultivation, which is also a crop highly sensitive to rainfall variability under rainfed conditions. The paper concludes that the effect of a rainfall shock on the gender wage gap depends upon the gender roles underlying the technology of production, which varies across cropping systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Compared to the extensive literature on measurement of poverty, the question of how the poor are distributed regionally has received less attention. This paper fills the gap in the literature by providing a conceptual framework to measure inequality in the distribution of the poor. A poverty segregation curve is used to compare a region’s share of the poor population with its share in the overall population. A unique contribution of the paper is formulating a generalized version of the poverty segregation curve. Unlike the segregation curve, the generalized segregation curve also takes average poverty rates into account while ranking distributions. Thus the generalized segregation curve may rank a distribution with substantially lower poverty rates above a distribution with higher poverty rates, when differences between their segregation curves are relatively small. The segregation curves are used to analyze changes in the distribution of the poor in India since the economic reforms in the early 1990s. Poverty rates and shares among all states, territories, and districts in India are estimated using data from the National Sample Survey Organization in 1994, 2004, and 2010. In the decades following the reforms India witnessed high growth rates and declining poverty rates. Despite the reduction in poverty, our analysis is the first to reveal that there was a significant rise in segregation of the poor over time. Some states had disproportionately high share of the poor compared to their share in the total population. Within states, the extent of segregation was lower among some of the poorest states and higher in less poor states. The generalized segregation curves show that the substantial decline in poverty rates since the reforms was not adequate to compensate the rise in segregation of the poor. Increase in segregation was also evident when the poor are identified as those who lacked education, health, and access to basic services. Reducing the segregation of the poor is important if India is to attain regionally balanced economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We construct a new database on income inequality in Africa from 1990 to 2019. • Inequality in Africa is very high: the top 10% regional income share reaches 55%. It has remained relatively stable since 1990. • Most of continent-wide income inequality comes from the within-country component rather than from average income differences between countries. • Settler colonialism and the spread of Islam stand out as robust correlates of differences in inequality between African countries. This article estimates the evolution of income inequality in Africa from 1990 to 2019 by combining surveys, tax data, and national accounts. Inequality in Africa is very high: the regional top 10% income share nears 55%, on par with regions characterized by extreme inequality, such as Latin America and India. Most of continent-wide income inequality comes from the within-country component rather than from average income differences between countries. Inequality is highest in Southern Africa and lowest in Northern and Western Africa. It remained fairly stable from 1990 to 2019, with the exception of Southern Africa, where it increased significantly. Among historical determinants, this geographical pattern seems to reveal the long shadow of settler colonialism, at least in Sub-Saharan Africa; the spread of Islam stands out as another robust correlate. The poor quality of the raw data calls for great caution, in particular when analyzing country-level dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Since the economic reforms in India in 1991, there has been a proliferation of studies examining trends of economic development and poverty across the country. To date, studies have used single-level analyses with aggregated data either at the state level or, less commonly, at the region and district levels. This is the first comprehensive and empirical quantification of the relative importance of multiple geographic levels in shaping poverty distribution in India. We used multilevel logistic models to partition variation in poverty by levels of states, regions, districts, villages, and households. We also mapped the residuals at the state, region and district levels to visualize the geography of poverty. We used data on 35 states, 88 regions, 623 districts, 25,390 villages and 202,250 households from the National Sample Survey in years 2009–10 and 2011–12. Our study found that geography of poverty in India cannot be fully explained by clustered distribution of poor households, and that there may be important contextual factors operating at the state and village levels. We found 13% of the variation in poverty to be attributable to states, 12% to villages, 4% to districts and 3% to regions, after accounting for important household characteristics. Similar variance partitioning was observed for rural and urban sample. The relative importance of one contextual level was highly sensitive to other levels simultaneously considered in the model. Findings from this study suggest that further explorations using multilevel modeling are warranted to identify specific contextual determinants of poverty at the state and village levels to reduce poverty and promote balanced regional development in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This article presents results from an investigation of the relationships between welfare and geographic metrics from over 14,000 villages in Assam, India. Geographic metrics accounted for 61% of the variation in the lowest welfare quintile and 57% in the highest welfare quintile. Travel time to market towns, percentage of a village covered with woodland, and percentage of a village covered with winter crop were significantly related to welfare. These results support findings in the literature across a range of different developing countries. Model accuracy is unprecedented considering that the majority of geographic metrics were derived from remotely sensed data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The premature mortality of female children is an alarming demographic outcome in many countries of the world. The most popular explanation for this phenomenon is the prevalence of son preference. However, empirical findings indicate that the assumption of a positive relationship between wanted daughters and female children’s survival is not found in every scenario, and it does not have a clear explanation in the literature. To fill this gap, we present a simple model that provides insights into how the positive marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival might decrease with higher societal discrimination against young females. The model draws on the emerging literature that examines the erosion of cognitive and noncognitive skills that results from poverty and discrimination. Our theoretical findings are tested for the case of India, using the third round of the National Family Health Survey, with Zero-Inflated Poisson models. Our estimates provide support for the interaction of parents’ preferences and societal discrimination against female children. In particular, we show that the statistical significance of the marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival disappears in contexts of high societal discrimination against female children. Our study contributes to the literature by questioning the commonly held assumption of additive separability between the effect of family and societal characteristics. One central implication is that the alleviation of poverty alone might fail to automatically reduce sex-based discriminatory practices, and that multidimensional interventions are required that target the individual and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We study the effect of an exogenous increase in food grain subsidy from a program targeting the poor in rural India and find that the increase in income resulting from the subsidy increased consumption of the subsidized grains and certain more expensive sources of nutrition, lowered consumption of coarse grains, the cheaper, yet, unsubsidized staple food, and increased expenditures on nonfood items but had no effect on nutrition in poor households. Estimates of the price effect of the subsidy on nutrition are also negligible; the price subsidy increased consumption of wheat and rice and lowered consumption of coarse grains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop diversification into high-value crops (HVCs) can be a strategy to improve livelihood outcomes for farmers. Using data from a nationally representative survey, we establish that households diversifying toward HVCs are less likely to be poor, the biggest impact being for smallholders. Furthermore, using continuous treatment matching, we establish the relationship between degree of diversification (share of area dedicated to HVC) and poverty. Growers of HVCs need to allocate at least 50% area to HVCs to escape poverty. Effect of diversification on poverty is in general positive but it withers after a threshold probably because of constraints i.e., capital on smaller farms and labor on larger ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has witnessed high economic growth since the 1980s, and a confirmed reduction in monetary poverty, particularly in poorer states. Poverty, however, has multiple dimensions. This paper thoroughly analyzes the change in multidimensional poverty in India between 1999 and 2006. We find a strong reduction in national poverty and each of its dimensions, but this has not been uniform across regions, castes, or religions. Probing further, we analyze changes in the distribution among the poor people nationally as well as within population subgroups. We find strong reductions among the poorer population nationally, but slower progress for most of the poorest groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the poverty–food security nexus, using an experience-based indicator of food security constructed using a cross-section sample of slum households in Kolkata, within the framework of a simultaneous ordered probit model. We find, a poor household is also likely to be food insecure. Additionally education, gender, and household composition are major drivers of food insecurity among low-income urban households, with the policy implication that anti-poverty policies should be successful in eliminating household food insecurity, however, they need to be complemented with human capital investment and gender empowerment to be most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We examine the relationship between infrastructure provision and poverty alleviation by analyzing 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non-serviced slums in India. Using a mixed-method approach of qualitative analysis and regression modeling, we find that infrastructure was associated with a 66% increase in education among females. Service provision increased literacy by 62%, enhanced income by 36%, and reduced health costs by 26%. Evidence suggests that a gender-sensitive consideration of infrastructure is necessary and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will not suffice. We provide evidence that infrastructure investment is critical for well-being of slum dwellers and women in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We estimate the impact of a Farmer Field School intervention among small-scale farmers in northern Tanzania on two main development objectives: food security and poverty. We employ a series of evaluation methodologies, including a Quasi-Difference-in-Difference setup, to account for potential selection into the project, despite lack of baseline data. We find strong positive effects on food security, but no effect on poverty. Investigating possible mechanisms for this result shows that reallocation of labor resources toward own agricultural production and improved production smoothing may have led to improved food security while poverty remained unaffected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• I collect annual district level data across India to estimate the effect of MGNREGA employment on women empowerment. • I use annual district level data on women demand for microfinance through self-help groups and incidents of sexual harassment and interpersonal violence as my indicators for women empowerment. • Using a difference-in-differences model, results indicate that the demand for microfinance among women increases and violence against women decreases as MGNREGA employment increases in a district. • These results align with a broad literature on the benefits of MGNREGA, which identifies important changes to household decision-making as women earn income across India. In many countries, women do not share the same decision-making power as the men around them. This preexisting discrimination suggests an imbalance in decision-making power in the household, which makes empowering the role of women a necessity for the health and development of our communities. Studies have noted how income growth across genders can shift decision-making power in the household. To investigate income growth and its effect on women empowerment, I analyze the Mahatmas Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act of 2005, which offers guaranteed employment to rural households throughout India. Its gradual implementation in three phases over a two year period allows for the use of a difference-in-differences analysis regarding the effects of guaranteed employment by men and women across districts. I analyze two outcomes variables related to women empowerment beginning in 2002 to 2017, including the demand for microfinance and violence against women. Results show that as women take up employment in a district, the demand for credit and savings increases and violence against women decreases. Each result aligns with a broad literature that identifies how income growth and employment empowers the health, social, and economic of status of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Public pension in India lowered the employment of low educated men aged 55–70. [•] Employment effect is low compared to effect of social security in rich countries. [•] Public pension in India raised family expenditures, lowering poverty. [•] Estimates suggest low pension coverage of elderly persons who were illiterate. [•] Households spent most of the pension income on medical care and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The objective of the present study is to examine whether household access to microfinance reduces poverty. Using national household data from India, treatment effects model is employed to estimate the poverty-reducing effects of Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) loans for productive purposes, such as investment in agriculture or non-farm businesses on household poverty levels. These models take into account the endogenous binary treatment effects and sample selection bias associated with access to MFIs. Despite some limitations, such as those arising from potential unobservable important determinants of access to MFIs, significant positive effect of MFI productive loans on multidimensional welfare indicator has been confirmed. The significance of “treatment effects” coefficients has been verified by both Tobit and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) models. In addition, we found that loans for productive purposes were more important for poverty reduction in rural than in urban areas. However in urban areas, simple access to MFIs has larger average poverty-reducing effects than the access to loans from MFIs for productive purposes. This leads to exploring service delivery opportunities that provide an additional avenue to monitor the usage of loans to enhance the outreach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: We utilize household-level consumption expenditure data from India to examine the evolution of inequality during 1983–2004. Various measures of inequality show that inequality levels were relatively stable during 1983–93, but increased during 1993–2004. The increases in inequality have not precluded reductions in poverty, however. They are also more of an urban phenomenon and can be accounted for by increases in returns to education in the urban sector to a considerable extent, especially among households that rely on income from education-intensive services and/or education-intensive occupations. Some of the increases in the returns to education can be linked to economic liberalization undertaken in the 1990s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The larger part of the economy in most developing countries is outside the regulative control of the state. When defined in this way, it has two types of expression: first, self-employment (with some wage-work) in unregistered or unincorporated small enterprises; second, unregistered and unregulated activity and workers inside and around large registered organizations such as firms, public sector enterprises, and the state itself. This paper reviews the literature, mainly but not exclusively from India, with three objectives. First, it questions what brings order to such economic activity and how economic and social insecurity is instituted. Second, it examines the counter intuitive proposition that social security rights are de facto, if not de jure, dependent upon work rights. Third, it explores the dynamics of, and responses to, informalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We investigate the impact of three large-scale social-protection schemes in Ethiopia, India, and Peru on multidimensional poverty. • We employ a difference-in-differences strategy to produce estimates that deal with non-random program assignment. • We find a significant decline in multidimensional poverty incidence and intensity, particularly for the severely poor. • We also find a positive sustained impact on asset formation, livestock holding, and some living standard indicators. • The effects of the social programs mainly emanate from the direct income effect of benefits irrespective of their design. We investigate the impact of three large-scale social-protection schemes in Ethiopia, India, and Peru on multidimensional poverty. Using data from the Young Lives cohort study, we show the trend, changes and evolution of multidimensional poverty for individuals in program participant households. We follow a number of strategies to produce estimates that deal with non-random program placement. Our findings show that both the incidence and intensity of multidimensional poverty declined in all three countries over the period 2006–2016, more so for program participants than non-participants. We find positive short-term impact on asset formation, livestock holding, and some living standard indicators. In all three countries these positive impacts are sustained even in the medium and longer-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines poverty and vulnerability by using a multidisciplinary approach in which household survey data and poverty analysis were applied in interaction with open-ended qualitative research methods. The study uses a variety of quantitative survey-based methods in combination with qualitative Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to explore key issues concerned with poverty, risk, and vulnerability in some of India’s poorest regions. It documents poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon and the poor as a highly heterogeneous group; efforts to reduced poverty in its many dimensions must recognize this diversity and how it is reflected in constraints and opportunities for rising out of poverty. Poverty reduction policies and programs must be designed accordingly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Fourteen percent of households in 36 villages of three districts in Andhra Pradesh, India, escaped from poverty over the past 25 years, but another 12% of these 5536 households fell into poverty during the same time. Escaping poverty and falling into poverty are responsive, respectively, to different sets of factors. Two different sets of poverty policies will be required in future: one set to assist escape, and another set to prevent descent. While ill health and high healthcare costs, social and customary expenses, high-interest private debt, and drought are associated most often with falling into poverty, diversification of income sources and land improvement are most closely related with escape. Some other factors, including industrial growth and education, have had only very slight and indirect effects on poverty in these villages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reflects on the functioning and shortcomings of the Food-For-Work (FFW) program in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. Drawing upon 12 months of primary field research conducted in 2001-02, it shows how design faults, administrative mismanagement, and local power relations excluded very poor and lower caste people from participating in the program. The main problem areas were ineffective village assemblies (Gram Sabhas), the engagement of "con- tractors," the selection of beneficiaries by contractors, inappropriate wage setting, payments in cash instead of grain, the use of labor-displacing machinery, and disregard of the labor:material ratio in works executed. The paper concludes with policy lessons for improving the design and implementation of future FFW programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viewing chronic poverty in terms of extended duration, severity and multidimensional deprivation, this paper uses existing literature to draw attention to those people in India for whom poverty is intractable. Two sets of approaches are used: an area-based approach and an historically marginalized groups-based approach. The area-based approach maps the location of the chronically poor by identifying states and regions that have been especially vulnerable to poverty in terms of severity and multidimensionality. It focuses on drylands and forest-based regions. The historically marginalized groups approach draws attention to groups who have suffered multiple deprivations for long periods. Chronic poverty is disproportionately high among casual agricultural laborers, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. In conclusion, the paper briefly reviews the factors that contribute to chronic poverty and the efficacy of policies to reduce such deprivation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Discusses the effectivity of the environmental enforcement in India. Effects of interrelationship of capital, labor and technology at the small firm level on the environmental problems; Adequacy of technocentric conceptualization; Poverty and labor market context of small industries.

Examines the impact of nonfarm income on poverty and inequality in a rural area in India. Measures of inequality; Assessment of poverty; Forest dependence and poverty.

• The poorest obtain more income from forests than agriculture. • Forest income is used as a safety net in times of crises, as well as providing basic consumption in good times. • Environmental incomes and other sources of income are complements. • Forests thus serve as a stepping stone to a better life rather than a millstone that slows progress out of poverty. This article investigates the links between forests and poverty in India. We use original data from a household survey in two states of India (Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) to provide new insights into this relationship. The poorest are found to receive about 30% of their incomes from forests – an amount that is higher than the income that they obtain from agriculture. We identify the correlates of greater environmental and forest income in the sample and also seek to examine whether environmental incomes are used only as a safety net during disasters, or for basic consumption purposes too. Our results show that when negative shocks occur there is a higher relative dependence on environmental incomes. The results also suggest that those who are better-off obtain higher levels of environmental income that the poorer. Overall the findings are consistent with environmental incomes and other sources of incomes being complements. In sum, the results suggest that forest income is used for basic consumption, is not a substitute for other sources of income, and is not treated as an "inferior good" that is eschewed by richer groups in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]