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Bangladesh's health finance characterizes by 63.3% out-of-pocket payments and a lack of prepayment mechanism. We assume this heavy burden significantly contributes to poverty. The results indicate, 3.2% of households are not counted as the poor, but in reality, they are. This shows an 8.8% underestimation of poverty. The poverty gap increases from Bangladesh Taka 1,458 to Taka 1,817. Similarly, the mean positive poverty gap rises from 22.2% to 25.2%, indicating that the increase in poverty is not only due to more households being brought into poverty but also deepening of the poverty among those who were already poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was aimed at analyzing the saving behavior of Saudi households in AL-HASA governorate, the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Data was collected via questionnaire randomly distributed to a sample of 308 Saudi households. The poverty line income was estimated as equivalent to break-even level in saving function, was estimated at 10500 Saudi Riyals per month. Using OLS method consumption and saving functions for Saudi households in AL-HASA governorate were estimated. The marginal propensity to save for poor was higher than that of non-poor households with a statistically significant difference of about 0.35. This indicates that poor households are more willing to save compared to non-poor households if income increases for both. For the determination of factors affecting saving behavior, the study applied the binary logistic regression, using maximum likelihood method with the dependent binary dummy variable of two values defining saving and non-saving households. Results indicated that the probability of saving for non-poor households is affected positively by household income; however, both the size of household and the dwelling type realized negative effects. Hence, the probability of increased saving for a rise in household income by SR 1,000 /month was estimated at 12.5%. In the case of an increase in the number of family members by one person, the probability of saving was less than 29.4%. The probability of saving for households living in rented houses was 60.6% less than the probability of saving for household living in their owned houses. Hence, residential rent represent an obstacle to saving for non-poor households. The most important factor influencing the probability of saving for poor households is number of family labor, where an increase in the number of workers in the poor family by one factor increases the probability of saving 34.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article aims to contribute to theorizing and research about the processes and relationships connecting families and poverty. The aim is to undertake a thought exercise to identify possible relationships and interactions between family and poverty. In existing poverty research practice, a simplified view of both individuals and families is presupposed by, first, the reduction of family to household; and, second, treating the household as nothing more than a unit size and composition. Drawing from existing research on both poverty and families in everyday life, the article offers two core insights. First, it suggests that poverty scholarship needs to take specific account of the processes of resource and income transformation that are associated with family living. Second, these processes are not necessarily functional or confined to the material, but encompass normative and moral agency associated with family membership. Both act to mediate poverty‐related and other outcomes. The article also suggests some conceptual and methodological refinements to take these issues forward in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is not accessible to all individuals and households. Low income specifically constrains participation in tourism and affects households’ level of Leisure and Tourism Expenditure (LTE). This study uses micro-data available regarding 9489 Portuguese households, deepening the understanding of the Portuguese reality concerning the households’ LTE, its determinants, and how these differ according to the households’ income level. Studies analysing leisure and tourism in low income families are scarce. Low income families have significantly lower LTE and important differences in the determinants of LTE arise between the groups of families. This deeper knowledge about the households’ LTE can form the basis for actions aiming to reduce constraints and encourage leisure and tourism, maximizing the benefits low income families can obtain from that participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper addresses one of the major challenges in rural livelihood analysis to quantitatively examine the dynamics of household livelihood strategies. It investigates the interactions between livelihood assets, activities, and outcomes, and captures the dynamics of long-term changes and their underlying factors. The study aims to identify the classification of rural livelihood strategies, their transitions and factors influencing these processes and changes. We employ the dynamic livelihood strategy framework, and use panel data for 2008 and 2012 covering 464 households in 15 villages in Cambodia, for latent class cluster analysis and regression estimation. In this paper, livelihood strategies are quantified based on allocation of available resources, which overcomes the limitations of income-based analysis. Our study identifies five household livelihood strategies pursued in the study areas, and the results show that over 70% of households change livelihood strategies over time in response to evolving pressures, incentives and opportunities. The study identifies covariates that shape the choices of livelihood strategies and affects the households’ access to more remunerative strategies, such as education, ownership of physical assets, and access to infrastructure. These findings suggest policy implications for improving the range of livelihood choices available to lower income groups to move out of poverty trap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable literature documents the deleterious economic consequences of incarceration. However, little is known about the consequences of incarceration for household assets-a distinct indicator of economic well-being that may be especially valuable to the survival of low-income families-or about the spillover economic consequences of incarceration for families. In this article, we use longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine how incarceration is associated with asset ownership among formerly incarcerated men and their romantic partners. Results, which pay careful attention to the social forces that select individuals into incarceration, show that incarceration is negatively associated with ownership of a bank account, vehicle, and home among men and that these consequences for asset ownership extend to the romantic partners of these men. These associations are concentrated among men who previously held assets. Results also show that post-incarceration changes in romantic relationships are an important pathway by which even short-term incarceration depletes assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth management states in the USA, such as Florida, Oregon, and Washington, require their local jurisdictions to plan for an adequate supply of housing for all current and future residents, including low-income households. This research uses regression analysis to test the relationship between the strength of local comprehensive plans toward affordable housing and subsequent changes in housing affordability for low-income households. Semi-structured interviews with local planners about their perceptions of the efficacy of local plans provide insight into the quantitative findings. The initial plans passed after Florida's Growth Management Act were not associated with subsequent changes in housing affordability, but more recent plans were. Planners in a number of jurisdictions indicated that Florida's planning mandate increased awareness among public officials of affordable housing issues and the tools available to address them, despite the state's weak oversight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the remittances effect on the inequality and income poverty, in the municipality of Santa Ines Yatzeche, in the State of Oaxaca. To achieve the objective, in 2011 we conducted a survey of 117 questionnaires covering 54.9% of heads of households in the community. With the information derived from the structure of household income, the Gini and Foster- Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) coefficients were calculated for total income. Results indicate values of 63.3%, 72.7% and 88.9% for the incidence of food poverty, capability and patrimony, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study rural employment transitions in Ethiopia between farming and both low- and high-return nonfarm employment. We find that initial asset holdings and access to saving and credit are important factors for transition into high-return rural nonfarm employment and that households' participation in high-return rural nonfarm activities is robust to their experience of health shocks. However, shocks that affect their wealth or liquidity may trigger descents into low-return nonfarm employment. On the other hand, shocks that reduce agricultural income motivate transitions into high-return rural nonfarm employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary: Poor people rely on local commons not only for self-insurance, as commonly found, but also for mutual insurance, depending on resources and shocks. This paper demonstrates that this conjecture holds among cyclone victims in the Pacific Islands. On one hand, households increase coastal fishing and handicraft selling, but not forest-product gathering, to smooth income against own crop damage. On the other hand, households with undamaged housing intensify fishing to help other kin-group members with damaged housing. These distinct patterns of using commons as insurance are explained by distinct forms of risk sharing against these two shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates three questions in a poor and drought-prone region of western Orissa, India. Is aggregate income stable? How do a household's characteristics and its local environment influence both the level of its income and its variability? Does a short-lived, common shock cause significant income variability? The study is based on an original, three-season panel data set of 240 households, in which one monsoon season was marked by a severe drought. Aggregate income varied little, but there were considerable fluctuations in individual household incomes across seasons, the main sources of which were idiosyncratic shocks. This suggests that although current programmes are effective in stabilizing aggregate income against drought, massive additional intervention along the same lines is not an efficient way to combat a drought's effects. Rather, it is desirable to promote suitable insurance arrangements to deal with idiosyncratic shocks, measures which would complement those designed to raise incomes permanently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programs using means tests to identify low-income households face a trade-off between promoting access and ensuring program integrity. The authors use a comparison-district design to estimate the effects of a pilot program to improve the accuracy of the process of certifying students for free or reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch Program. This pilot program required households to provide income documentation with their applications for these benefits. Requiring income documentation did not reduce the proportion of ineligible households getting free or reduced-price meals. Furthermore, this requirement did reduce access to the program among eligible households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this special issue is to draw attention to "missing dimensions" of poverty data - dimensions that are of value to poor people, but for which we have scant or no data. Amartya Sen frames development as the process of expanding the freedoms that people value and have reason to value. Although the most widely known measure of human development includes income, longevity and education, many have argued that people's values, and consequently multidimensional poverty, extend beyond these domains. In order to advance these multiple areas, it is at times necessary to conduct empirical studies using individual or household-level data on multiple dimensions of poverty. A critical barrier for international analyses of multidimensional poverty is that few or no high-quality indicators are available across countries and respondents in key domains that are deeply important to poor people and of potentially critical instrumental importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the importance of poverty rate over other social and economic indicators that bear on poverty or progress on the domestic U.S. scene. The poverty rate identifies households with incomes falling below an official poverty threshold and are regularly calculated for the country as a whole as well as for every locality. However, the author explores the idea that unreliable and misleading conclusions are offered by the poverty measure.

This paper reports an analysis of income poverty dynamics in Australia using longitudinal data from the first three waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. As in other developed countries, far fewer people are found to be living in persistent poverty than are poor on an annual basis. With a poverty threshold set at 50 per cent of median equivalised income, just over four per cent of Australians were measured as being in income poverty in all three waves. Among those who were poor during 2000-01, about half subsequently had incomes above the 50 per cent threshold. However, the longer people remained in poverty, the less likely they were to exit, the greater was their risk of re-entering poverty, and the lower were their incomes if they temporarily escaped poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation in rural off-farm activities (outside a household's own farm) is one of the livelihood strategies among poor rural households in many developing countries. One component of off-farm activities accessible to the very poor is wage labor because it does not require any complementary physical capital. A household's ability to participate in the rural labor market depends on the characteristics of the household itself and the local labor markets conditions. This study examines the factors that determine the number of households supplying labor to a particular rural local labor market in rural areas of Tanzania and the share of labor income in total cash income. The study finds that education level, availability of land, and access to economic centers and credit are the most important factors in determining the number of households that participate in a particular rural local labor market and the share of labor income in total cash income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines shifts in the economic roles of working-class women in married-couple households during the 1980s. It reviews aggregate economic data from that decade and presents the results of a case study of 102 blue-collar families who experienced changes in employment and earnings because of a recession brought on by the loss of manufacturing jobs. The study found that as jobs in the goods producing sector declined and the earnings of the blue-collar men dropped, the employment rates for the women rose, and the women assumed a stronger economic role in their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]