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This paper considers the implications for poverty measurement of the observed fact that any individual's level of deprivation is a function not only of his own income, but of the general level of prosperity of the group to which he is affiliated. Individual deprivation functions are specialized to a form that reflects this 'group-affiliation' externality, and the resulting poverty measure is studied with respect to its properties, and its implications for poverty rankings. Mainstream approaches to measuring deprivation tend to neglect group-related externalities in favour of a certain thorough-going 'individualism'. This paper is a preliminary attempt at filling this gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of remittance flows on growth and income distribution has attracted a great deal of attention, but the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between remittances and economic development is far from clear. Although there is wide consensus that foreign remittances can help the receiving households to increase income, consumption and capabilities to cope with socioeconomic shocks, there has been little quantitative research on impacts of remittances on household welfare and poverty. Our paper seeks to fill some of these gaps proposing an empirical analysis of the role of remittances as a tool for reducing inequality and covering households against poverty and social exclusion risks. The empirical analysis focuses on four Eastern European Countries: Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and is based on the EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) 2005 data-set providing for each household information as to the received inter-household cash transfers and among which regular cash support from households in other countries (i.e. remittances) are included. The results show that remittances are statistically significant in terms of poverty reduction even if their effects are generally smaller than those of welfare transfers. Furthermore, the impact of remittances and welfare transfers differ across the countries considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of poverty is understood differently by people across the globe. Despite this conceptual limitation, higher economic growth in the last few decades in many countries has helped reduce extreme global poverty. The growth process has been supported by globalization. The number of global poor is, however, still quite large and more than the entire population of USA, UK, France and Russia. Their numbers have gone up by 100 million in Sub Sahara region in last three decades. While removal of extreme poverty is clearly vital, it cannot be considered sufficient for a dignified life. The crux of human dignity is development and it must provide every individual access to education, healthcare, nutrition, habitat, and exercising of democratic rights in accordance with the rule of law. While helping reduce poverty, globalization has also led to some morally unsustainable consequences. There is huge and rapidly increasing inequality of wealth and income in most nations. There are now new opportunities for corruption which are being exploited by multinationals. These corrupt practices are resulting in illicit flow of about one trillion Dollars every year. For a more ethical society, effective measures are needed for controlling corruption for improving quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the nexus between poverty, inequality, and economic growth in Indonesia between 2002 and 2012, using several pro-poor growth concepts and indices to determine whether growth in this period benefited the poor. Our regression-based decompositions of poverty into growth and redistribution components suggest that around 40% of inequality in total household expenditure in Indonesia was due to variations in expenditure by education characteristics that persisted after controlling for other factors. We find that economic growth in this period benefited households at the top of the expenditure distribution, and that a ‘trickle down’ effect saw the poor receive proportionately fewer benefits than the non-poor. If reducing poverty is one of the Indonesian government's principal objectives, then policies designed to spur growth must take into account the possible impacts of growth on inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing panel data techniques, we investigate the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of inequality and poverty in the EU over the period 1994–2008. We pay particular attention to the effects of macroeconomic environment, social protection and labour market institutions. The empirical analysis shows that the social transfers in cash, and principally the transfers that do not include pensions, exert a prominent impact on inequality and poverty. Also significant is the effect of the GDP per capita. The impact of employment on inequality and poverty is not empirically sound. The same holds for the labour market institutions; an exception is the union density, which appears conducive to a less dispersed personal income distribution. Importantly, the results support the view that the social protection system acts as a catalyst in determining the effectiveness of social spending and the distributive role of economic growth and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relation between the economy and equity has shown marked contrasts in Latin America over the past two decades. Increases in public spending have been reflected in advances in education, health and access to basic utilities. In contrast, the region has experienced weak labor market performance and limited advances in social security. An intermediate situation has characterized poverty and income distribution, where there has been important progress during the first decade of the twenty-first century after almost a quarter century of unsatisfactory performance. This panorama can be described as a process of human development with precarious employment and economic insecurity. It indicates that Latin America has found it easier to respond to the challenge of human development than to the reduction of inequality and the expansion of ‘labor citizenship’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]