Search

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether nighttime luminosity sourced from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System satellite sensors is a suitable proxy for measuring poverty in Africa. Design/methodology/approach: Our study performs wavelet coherence analysis to investigate the time-frequency synchronization between the nightlight data and "income-to-wealth" ratio for 39 African countries between 1992 and 2012. Findings: All-in-all, the authors find that approximately a third of African countries produce positive synchronizations between nighttime data and "income-to-wealth" ratio and hence conclude that most African countries are not at liberty to use nighttime data to proxy conventional poverty statistics. Originality/value: In differing from previous studies, the authors examine the suitability of nightlight intensity as a proxy of poverty for individual African countries using much more rigorous analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Income inequality (II) and poverty are major challenges in South Africa (SA) yet little is known about their interaction on population mental health. We explored relationships between district II, household income (HHI) and depressive symptoms in national panel data.Method: We used 3 waves (2008, 2010, 2012) of the SA National Income Dynamics Study (n=25936) in adjusted mixed effects logistic regression to assess if the relationship between HHI and depressive symptoms is dependent on level of II. Depressive symptoms were assessed with Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, and District inequality ratios (P10P90) derived from HHI distributions in 53 districts.Results: Lower HHI and increasing II were associated with depressive symptoms. The interaction term between HHI and II on depressive symptoms was significant (β=0.01, 95% CI: <0.01-0.01); with increasing II and decreasing HHI, depression risk increased.Conclusion: II widens income-related disparities in depression risk in SA, with policy implications for understanding socioeconomic determinants of mental health and informing global efforts to reduce disparities in high poverty and inequality contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African poverty statistics depend on household-level measurements from survey data, making the definition of household of critical importance. Detailed case studies from Tanzania and Burkina Faso explore (1) understandings of household membership and ambiguities, and (2) how well survey definitions capture households as economic units, and the implications for household size and responses to and mitigation of poverty. We develop an analytic framework of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ households. ‘Open’ households cope with poverty using flexibility, movement and extra-household networks, but are poorly represented by survey data. Closed households are likely to be better described by survey data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]