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Accurately measuring poverty and assessing trends in its incidence and severity are among the most fundamental challenges in economic development. The issue of effective poverty measurement has been the subject of renewed interest since the United Nations adopted the millennium development goals (MDGs) in 2000. In Niger, as in many comparable countries worldwide, poverty data are collected through household surveys of consumption patterns and living conditions. A number of methodological factors can affect the accuracy of consumption data during the collection phase, especially the number of survey visits, the time of year during which the questionnaire is administered, the recall period, and the composition of the consumption basket defined in the survey. The purpose of this paper is to produce a robust analysis of poverty trends in Niger from 2005 to 2011 by using the 2011 survey as the basis for monitoring poverty and correcting for methodological differences in earlier surveys. The decision to use the 2011 survey as the basis for establishing methodological consistency is rooted in two factors. First, the large variations in poverty estimates obtained in different survey periods are suspected to be due in part to changes in the survey methodology. Second, the 2011 survey coincided with the adoption of Niger’s current growth and poverty reduction strategy, programme de développement economique et social (PDES). The report describes the 2011 survey methodology and the techniques used to make the previous figures compatible with this methodology. It presents the revised poverty figures and discusses their implications. It also offers conclusions and recommendations.

This study discusses the impact of economic geography and (low) population density on development outcomes in Mali and explores how policies to reduce poverty can be made more effective by taking these two factors into account. The crisis in north Mali which started in 2012 and continues to date has brought questions of economic geography to the center of attention. To help answer such questions, and to analyze how to reduce poverty in Mali as a whole, this study uses different sources of information to analyze the diversity of livelihood patterns, in access to services and in living standards. The study uses quantitative information from household surveys, population and firm censuses, administrative and geographic data, and qualitative information about livelihoods. This study argues that the authorities will need to employ all three policy instruments, while emphasizing that if the objective is poverty reduction, most attention should be focused on spatially blind approaches. The study is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two emphasizes differences in population density which allows distinguishing between types of agglomeration from villages, to rural town, to large cities. Chapter three categorizes the country into various livelihood zones and considers how the agro-physical environment affects the way people live. In chapter four authors turn to household welfare. Chapter five considers access to services. Chapter six is forward looking.

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The transition from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plans has left workers forced to make choices that may decrease their financial resources in retirement: taking lump-sum distributions before retirement that divert funds that could support consumption in retirement, not annuitizing DC benefits, or choosing a single-life annuity over a joint-and-survivor option so that their surviving spouses are left susceptible to income loss. This study examines pension coverage, lump-sum distributions, annuitization, and annuity life options among Health and Retirement Study households observed at ages 65-69 and 75-79 and relates these pension provisions to poverty incidence and the risk of falling into poverty at older ages. The results indicate that households with pensions that are annuitized with the joint-and-survivor life option and that do not take lump-sum distributions before age 55 are best able to avoid income and asset poverty. The results emphasize the importance of making DC plans operate more like DB plans, because the opportunities for these poor financial choices are likely only to grow given the reliance on DC plans as the sole source of employer pension income for future cohorts of retirees.

Recent theoretical work hypothesises that a polarised society like South Africa will suffer a legacy of ineffective social capital and blocked pathways of upward mobility that leaves large numbers of people trapped in poverty. To explore these ideas, this paper employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Novel econometric analysis of asset dynamics over the 1993–98 period identifies a dynamic asset poverty threshold that signals that large numbers of South Africans are indeed trapped without a pathway out of poverty. Qualitative analysis of this period and the period 1998–2001 more deeply examines patterns of mobility, and confirms the continuation of this pattern of limited upward mobility and a low-level poverty trap. In addition, the qualitative data permit a closer look at the specific role played by social relationships. While finding ample evidence of active social capital and networks, these are more helpful for non-poor households. For the poor, social capital at best helps sta...

Longitudinal data on household living standards open the way to a deeper analysis of the nature and extent of poverty. While a number of studies have exploited this type of data to distinguish transitory from more chronic forms of income or expenditure poverty, this paper develops an asset-based approach to poverty analysis that makes it possible to distinguish deep-rooted, persistent structural poverty from poverty that passes naturally with time due to systemic growth processes. Drawing on the economic theory of poverty traps and bifurcated accumulation strategies, this paper briefly discusses some feasible estimation strategies for empirically identifying poverty traps and long-term, persistent structural poverty, as well as relevant extensions of the popular Foster-Greer-Thorbecke class of poverty measures. The paper closes with reflections on how asset-based poverty can be used to underwrite the design of persistent poverty reduction strategies.

An important barrier to successful implementation of conservation–development initiatives by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is the problem of effective targeting (i.e., bwith whom specifically should we work and why?Q). In this paper, we demonstrate how two concepts—resource draw and economic reliance—provide the analytical means to improve targeting in tropical rain forests where protected areas often cover large, remote areas of forest with high biological diversity, and local populations are typically poor and settlements dispersed. Combining an basset-basedQ conceptual approach to rural livelihoods and data from surveys conducted with forest peasant in the Pacaya–Samiria National Reserve area of Peru (n=263 households, eight villages), this study examines the empirical relations between the volume of extraction (draw) and the share of income (reliance) contributed by fishing, hunting, and resource extraction, as well as critical biological resources (moriche palm fruit, Mauritia flexuosa; paiche, Arapaima gigas; aquarium fish). Results indicate that resource draw can be highly concentrated among just a few households in selected villages, that economic reliance may or may not be associated with resource draw, and that the predictors of resource draw and reliance, such as land poverty, labour access, household lifecycle, or past experience, vary markedly across resource use activities. As such, our findings explicate heterogeneity in peasant forest resource use— pointing to the critical importance of differential household asset holdings—and challenge the prevailing assumption that asset poor households are the primary extractors of critical biological resources. Attention to differential patterns of resource use is crucial in the design of the next generation of conservation–development initiatives for tropical forests and rapid rural appraisal instruments can be readily refined to provide much needed information on resource draw and economic reliance. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

American prosperity in the second half of the 1980s together with the booming economy of the 1990s created the impression that American households have done well, particularly in terms of wealth acquisition. In this paper, we develop the concept of “asset poverty” as a measure of economic hardship, distinct from and complementary to the more commonly used concept of “income poverty.” We define a household with insufficient assets to enable it to meet basic needs (as measured by the income poverty line) for a period of three months to be asset poor. The results reveal that in the face of the large growth in overall assets in the U.S. and a fall in standard income poverty over the period from 1983 to 2001, the level of asset poverty increased from 22.4 to 24.5 percent. We also find that asset poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are over twice those for whites; that asset poverty rates fall monotonically with both age and education; that they are much higher for renters than homeowners; and that by family type they range from a low of 5 percent for elderly couples to 71 percent for female single parents.

Assets in the United States are distributed even more unequally than income, though they can be vital to an individual's standard of living. The authors present a comprehensive assessment of the distribution of assets in the United States and calculate an asset poverty line below which an individual cannot meet his or her basic needs.

A growing literature asks whether low-wealth agents can accumulate assets over time or whether they are trapped in poverty. This paper develops a stochastic dynamic programming model with endogenous asset price risk to explore savings and portfolio decisions in a resource-poor environment characterized by risk and subsistence constraints. Optimal portfolio strategies are found to bifurcate, despite divisible assets and fully rational agents. Wealthier agents acquire a higher-yielding portfolio and pursue conventional consumption smoothing. Poorer agents acquire a less remunerative portfolio and pursue asset smoothing, rather than consumption smoothing. Asset-based risk coping thus results in positive correlation between initial wealth and portfolio rate of return.

This article argues that economic instability and sexual violence reinforce each other in two ways. First, the devastating psychological consequences of sexual assault can diminish work performance and disrupt income, creating economic instability, particularly for the asset-poor. Latina and African American women face particular risk due to barriers to appropriate post-assault resources and low rates of asset ownership. Second, income- and asset poverty increase women’s risk for sexual violence and complicate recovery. Women with financial and social resources can leverage these assets to both avoid and recover from sexual assault, whereas women without such resources lack these options. Policy solutions are proposed.

Racial disparities exist in many aspects of social and economic life in the United States. One of the more persistent and potentially damaging disparities is the racial gap in wealth. In this chapter, we (a) explore why communities of color remain behind in asset accumulation, (b) introduce blueprints for individual and collective strategies for building wealth in communities of color, and (c) provide three brief case studies. We acknowledge that it has taken generations to create the current racial wealth gap in the United States and it will not go away quickly. Yet, it is still possible to reduce the number of people living in asset poverty and improve economic security among communities of color. Individual-level strategies and assets discussed in this chapter include investing a portion of Earned Income Tax Credit refunds, Individual Development Accounts, retirement savings, real estate, and estate planning through a trust or family endowment. Collective-level strategies and assets discussed include shared risk pools for insurance, housing cooperatives, investment clubs, worker-owned and microenterprise cooperatives, Community Development Corporations, venture capital entities, and foundations. We note the need for “gap-closing methods” that collectively implement these strategies on a large scale and make suggestions for how this might happen.

A 1993 South African living standards survey documented the legacy of apartheid in the form high levels of inequality and human insecurity. Drawing on a 1998 re-survey of households in the 1993 study, this paper explores whether this legacy has been superseded, or whether apartheid's end has been only one kind of freedom that has left households in a poverty trap from which they cannot escape. After proposing a theoretically grounded dynamic poverty typology that distinguishes stochastic from structural poverty transitions, the paper goes on to estimate that significant numbers of the South African poor are potentially trapped in a structural poverty trap and lack the means to escape poverty over time.

Imperfect credit markets force households to use their savings for investment. Profitable activities often require lumpy investments, limiting entry by poorer households, resulting in increasing welfare differences. In Tanzania, cattle are a profitable but lumpy investment and a liquid asset for consumption smoothing. Richer households own substantial cattle herds, while poorer households specialize in low return, low risk activities. A dynamic programming model and simulations are presented to analyze entry into asset accumulation under income risk. The evidence suggests that households with lower endowments are less likely to own cattle and returns to their endowments are lower.

In Canada, poverty policy and discourse focuses on annual estimates of low income. Assuming that assets, independent from income, represent an alternative view of well-being we introduce an asset-based measurement of poverty for Canada based on (1) financial assets and (2) net worth. A household is "asset poor" if it does not own sufficient assets to survive at the low-income cutoff for three months. Data from the 1999 and 2005 cycles of the Survey of Financial Security suggest asset poverty rates were approximately two to four times higher than the corresponding low-income rates. We show for the first time that, proportionately, households with female lone parents, renters and younger persons were overrepresented among the asset poor. We demonstrate that 14% of Canadians were joint low income and financial asset poor in 2005. The relatively high asset poverty rates suggests a need for anti-poverty policies to better promote financial security.

Understanding the financial well-being of single mothers who care for children with developmental disabilities is important to ensure that public policies can be effectively targeted to support these vulnerable families. The authors analyze data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to describe income poverty, asset poverty, income, net worth, and liquid assets of U.S. single, working-age mothers (n = 242) of children and adult children with developmental disabilities. The well-being of these mothers was compared to the situation of married mothers of children with developmental disabilities (n = 345) and of single mothers who did not have children with developmental disabilities (n = 6,547). Compared with both married mothers of children with developmental disabilities and single mothers without children with developmental disabilities, single mothers of children with developmental disabilities had markedly worse financial well-being across a range of income- and asset-based measures. Single mothers caring for children with developmental disabilities face adverse financial well-being as compared with other mothers. Policy makers should consider targeted measures to improve the financial well-being of these parents.

This article pioneers an asset-by-asset point index, which represents a simple methodology that uses inputs rather than outputs of well-being to recognise the 'poor' on a point basis, household by household. It focuses on assets, which are a significant aspect of well-being in whose absence households may fall into deprivation. The index is well-suited for the production of localised indicators, as it allows disaggregation of data by a rural/urban divide and even at the village/household level, which facilitates area-based interventions. It is an asset-based measure, which will help to identify the poor and the type of help they need; it can thus be used as a monitoring tool at the household and community level. It represents an alternative approach to measuring household poverty.

In order to be successful at improving household's financial self-sufficiency and stability, asset-building policies must be designed to prevent households from falling back into asset poverty once they exit it. This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data from 1994 to 2007 to analyze the influence of life events, demographics and financial behaviors on the duration out of asset poverty. We find evidence that suggests there are structural barriers to asset acquisition. Asset accumulation at levels equal to nine months worth of income at the income poverty level or greater is important for improving a family's odds of permanently escaping asset poverty. Additionally, minimizing debt and diversifying the asset portfolio to include more productive assets are important for maintaining assets. This paper provides some insights on policies to help individuals more successfully transition out of asset poverty.

This chapter seeks to problematize notions of community and position this debate within the odyssey of female migration, more specifically, Sub-Saharan African asylum seekers in Malta. I begin my argument by confronting the assumed homogeneity of any community, and I hope to demonstrate how, contrary to political and public discourse so very prevalent in Malta which tends to generalize and essentialize, the Sub-Saharan African asylum seeker population also exhibits diversity, hierarchal structures and exclusion. This, I will argue, is particularly salient in the case of female asylum seekers, whose experience in Malta is often one experienced at the margins, a gendered and racialized experience, frequently marked by poverty, violence, and political disempowerment.

In this article we illustrate how fine-grained longitudinal analyses of land holding and land use among forest peasant households in an Amazonian village can enrich our understanding of the poverty/land cover nexus. We examine the dynamic links in shifting cultivation systems among asset poverty, land use, and land cover in a community where poverty is persistent and primary forests have been replaced over time—with community enclosure—by secondary forests (i.e., fallows), orchards, and crop land. Land cover change is assessed using aerial photographs/satellite imagery from 1965 to 2007. Household and plot level data are used to track land holding, portfolios, and use as well as land cover over the past 30 y, with particular attention to forest status (type and age). Our analyses find evidence for two important types of “land-use” poverty traps—a “subsistence crop” trap and a “short fallow” trap—and indicate that the initial conditions of land holding by forest peasants have long-term effects on future forest cover and household welfare. These findings suggest a new mechanism driving poverty traps: insufficient initial land holdings induce land use patterns that trap households in low agricultural productivity. Path dependency in the evolution of household land portfolios and land use strategies strongly influences not only the wellbeing of forest people but also the dynamics of tropical deforestation and secondary forest regrowth.

This article examines factors related to a livestock rental market in western Nepal and assesses whether this market is associated with caste differentiation and land rental market participation. Theoretical models for asset-rich (i.e., high-caste) households, rich in land and livestock, and asset-poor (i.e., low-caste families) households are presented to provide logical explanations for the existence of a livestock rental market and the synergy between livestock and land rental markets participation. A combination of double hurdle models and bivariate-ordered probit models were used to test the implications of the models. Consistent with the theoretical models, land- and livestock-rich high-caste households were more likely to rent out land and/or livestock, whereas land- and livestock-poor and credit constrained low-caste households were more likely to rent livestock and land from others. Participation in the two markets was positively correlated, indicating a synergistic relationship that may be due to production and transaction costs reducing benefits. Policies that can enhance the allocative efficiency of livestock and land rental markets can improve equity as well as efficiency of land use in Nepal. Provision of livestock credit to land-poor low-caste households is also crucially dependent on their access to more long-term contracts for land. JEL classifications: Q12, Q15, Q18

This paper examines factors related to the existence of a livestock rental market in western Nepal and assesses whether this is associated with caste differentiation and land rental market participation. This study brings new empirical evidence of livestock rental market against the established view that such market does not exist due to moral hazard. Theoretical models for asset- rich (high-caste) households, rich in land and livestock, and asset-poor (low-caste) households are presented providing logical explanations for the existence of a livestock rental market and synergies between livestock and land rental market participation. A combination of double hurdle models and bivariate ordered probit models were applied to test the implications of the models. The empirical evidence was found to be consistent with the theoretical models. Land- and livestock-rich (high-caste) households were more likely to rent out land and/or livestock. Land- and livestock-poor and credit constrained (low-caste) households were more likely to rent in livestock and land. Participation in the two markets was positively correlated indicating synergies that may be due to production and transaction cost reducing benefits. The male labor endowment, partly determined by migration, was a major determinant of livestock rental behavior.

The removal of nation wide poverty has consistently been one of the main objectives of Indian policy. The Indian modern history contains several examples of discussion on this topic as far back as 1901. India embarked on a series of Five Year Plans, each containing some kind of poverty eradication or social justice component. The First Five Year Plan was launched in 1951, since then, there have been ten additional plans, the most recent being the Eleventh Five Year Plan launched in 2007. The consideration of economic policies vis-a-vis their impact on the poor highlights a continued emphasis by Indian policy makers on poverty elimination. However, there have been serious shortcomings of government efforts in alleviating poverty during the past few decades. Even after sixty five years of independence, one - fourth of India’s Population still lives in poverty. Bihar is amongst the poorest states in India, with poverty incidence of 42.6 per cent. Per capita net domestic product has been estimated to be $ 446 for Bihar which is about one–third of the corresponding national average ($ 1220) and less than one-fourth of Haryana ($ 2052), one of the richest states in India (Government of Bihar, 2011). The recent studies based on primary data dealing with economic and non- economic aspects of poverty are not readily available which are needed to have deeper insights of different dimensions of poverty in Bihar, India. The present study is designed to examine various socio-economic dimensions of poor households in Bihar. the sample consisted of 160 households, 40 each from each sample villages. Data on various socio-economic aspects are being collected through panel interview with the help of well structured schedules by Resident Investigators. In the present study, data collected for the period 2010-2011 have been used for detailed analysis. Data relating to social class, education level, asset, livestock, migration, employment pattern, housing, and drinking water of poor households are considered for meaningful conclusions. This study is based on the information collected from 65 Below Poverty Line (BPL) households of four villages of Bihar. Bihar agriculture was stagnant in eighties and early nineties and observed poor growth up to tenth five year plan. In eleventh five year plan, there has been growth in agriculture sector in Bihar. Bihar is the second poorest state in India. During last 20 years poverty has declined by more than 14 percent but number of poor persons increased during the period. On the basis of analysis of household level data of VDS villages, it may be inferred that the education, land and asset poverty have been prevalent in Bihar villages. Landlessness and low per capita land are also causing poverty in Bihar. The majority of poor persons are getting employment in non-farm sector and migration is main strategy for maintaining livelihood of poor households in Bihar, but majority of persons migrated out-side state and were engaged mainly in non-farm sector. Their access to electricity, improved living condition and sanitation has been very low which may be the cause of their poor health. Despite various programmes of improving access to financial institutions, the majority of poor households of Bihar, particularly of less developed area are still dependents on money lenders for credit facilities. Various poverty alleviation programmes have not been effective in reduction of poverty up to desired level in Bihar. Hence, there is an urgent need to have holistic approach for improving various social and economic dimensions of state for faster reduction in poverty in Bihar.

Objectives. We assess the income and wealth packages of older women’s (age 65+ years) households and the extent to which low income is paired with low wealth, across a group of six high-income countries. Methods. We use data on income and net worth from the Luxembourg Wealth Study, a new cross-national microdatabase. We defi ne income poverty as having household income less than 50% of the national median and asset poverty as holding fi nancial assets equivalent to less than 6 months of income at the poverty threshold. Results. Older women typically have less income than do members of younger households at the national median, but their wealth holdings are generally much higher than their country’s median wealth holdings. Older women’s households in the United States report the highest net worth across these countries, in part because older American women have comparatively high rates of homeownership. However, American older women are also substantially more likely to be income poor. They also report high levels of asset poverty, as do women across all our comparison countries, with Sweden as a partial exception. Discussion. Further research is needed to identify the most vulnerable subgroups, to integrate analyses of necessary expenditures, and to assess policy implications .

Although identifying the existence and the nature of household-level poverty traps would have important implications for the design of poverty reduction policies empirical evidence is still scant. A small, but growing empirical literature has begun testing for poverty traps as thresholds in non-linear welfare dynamics. Employing a variety of quantitative methods it has produced a variety of conclusions. This paper uses a uniquely long household panel from three villages in rural India to examine whether the detection of poverty traps may be contingent on the quantitative method used to model household welfare dynamics. It then employs a novel semiparametric panel data estimator that combines the advantages of the existing methods. Since in the context of dynamic poverty traps we are primarily concerned with expected, structural well-being it measures household welfare in assets. Structural immobility in these Indian villages is pervasive. Household asset holdings are stagnant over time. Absent any structural changes, the currently poor are likely to remain poor, suggesting a strong type of poverty trap that is qualitatively different from a dynamic thresholds-type poverty trap. While all types of households face static asset holdings, higher castes, larger landholders and more educated households are significantly less likely to be poor.

This paper applies Carter and Barrett’s theory of assets poverty traps to a unique longitudinal survey from rural Bangladesh. Non-parametric and parametric methods are used to examine the shape of the dynamic asset frontier, the number of equilibria, and whether land and nonland assets stock converge to such equilibria. We find evidence for concavity of the dynamic asset frontier but no evidence for multiple equilibria in the case of both land and non-land assets. It is hypothesised that the existence of well-functioning markets for labour and capital and the absence of discrete differences in livelihood strategies in rural Bangladesh, and Asia more generally, help to explain the contrast between our results and those for several African countries.

This paper demonstrates that there are potentially large returns to having a social protection policy that stakes out a productive safety net below the vulnerable and keeps them from slipping into a poverty trap. Much of the value of the productive safety net comes from mitigating the ex ante effects of risk and crowding in additional investment. The analysis also explores the implications of different mechanisms of targeting social protection transfers. In the presence of poverty traps, modestly regressive targeting based on critical asset thresholds may have better long-run poverty reduction effects than traditional needs-based targeting.

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the wealth dimension of poverty in developed countries, which can hardly be measured by means of the information on household income. We focus in identifying the group of households that lack enough wealth holdings to sustain them during a period of economic crisis in order to quantify asset poverty, and its demographic weight, in two industrialized countries with particularly different household demographics and saving attitudes such as Spain and the United Kingdom. Our results show that the age profile of the asset poor is remarkably similar in the two countries. In both it is individuals in households whose head is under 45 years old who are more likely to be asset poor, even if, when the housing wealth component is excluded, both show that the incidence of asset poverty by head of household age follows a clear U-shape pattern. However, some country-specific differences also arise. For instance, the incidence of wealth poverty in the United Kingdom is twice that of Spain. Using counterfactual analysis we find that, although the different household demographics clearly contribute importantly to this result, there remains a significant part of the asset-poverty gap which is not explained by this relevant factor.

In the wake of reforms to establish a free market in land-use rights, Vietnam is experiencing a pronounced rise in rural landlessness. To some observers this is a harmless by-product of a more efficient economy, while to others it signals the return of the pre-socialist class-structure, with the rural landless at the bottom of the economic ladder. The authors' theoretical model suggests that removing restrictions on land markets will increase landlessness among the poor, but that there will be both gainers and losers, with uncertain impacts on aggregate poverty. Empirically, they find that landlessness is less likely for the poor and that the observed rise in landlessness is poverty reducing on balance. However, there are marked regional differences, notably between the north and the south.

In order to determine whether the distribution of wealth in American society uncovers deeper fault lines of inequality than income alone, data from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation is examined. The findings indicate that: (1) aggregate shares of wealth held by households are distributed far more unevenly than income shares, with extreme concentrations at the upper levels; (2) the data on wealth shows that the condition of black America is far more precarious, marginalized, and unequal than was thought previously; (3) single and separated women hold few assets in comparison with their male from SIPP using the weights provided by the U.S. Census which approximates the U.S. population. Parallel analyses conducted on the weighted and unweighted samples showed similar results. 3. For a detailed analysis of black-white differences in wealth see Oliver and Shapiro (1989).

The aim of this study is to provide an analysis of the shifts in non-income welfare that have occurred over the period 1993 to 2004. This analysis serves as a complement to existing research which has focused on shifts in income poverty and inequality in the post-apartheid period. In addition, the study is one of only a few that provides a complete overview of the first decade of democracy by means of the comprehensive time period it covers. We use a technique called factor analysis to construct an asset index as an alternative, non-income based, measure of welfare. Variables reflecting household access to a range of services and assets are used in the construction of our asset index. An initial descriptive overview of the shifts in access to services and assets provides strong evidence that government asset and service delivery between 1993 and 2004 was pro-poor in nature. When standard measures of poverty are applied to our asset index values, statistically significant decreases in the headcount asset poverty rates between 1993 and 2004 across a range of covariates are found. A series of inequality measures are also applied to our asset index. The estimates show that across all covariates, asset inequality decreased between 1993 and 2004. Inequality decompositions indicate that within-group inequality has increased in importance in determining aggregate inequality.

Recent empirical work finds evidence of highly nonlinear wealth dynamics among the Boran pastoralists of southern Ethiopia, consistent with the hypothesis of poverty traps. We ask two critical, logically subsequent questions: (1) Do Boran pastoralists understand these dynamics? (2) If they do, what are the consequences for informal interhousehold transfers arrangements (gifts and loans of cattle)? We address these questions using original primary data collected among the same population to establish (i) pastoralists' expectations of herd dynamics and (ii) the structure of social transfers networks. Our results suggest that Borana pastoralists perceive the nonlinear dynamics that characterize livestock wealth in the region and that these result from adverse weather shocks affecting primarily households of intermediate herding ability, underscoring the criticality of methods for protecting assets in the face of unanticipated shocks. This has consequences on the design of transfer arrangements. In particular, we find that transfers of cattle respond to recipients' cattle losses, but only so long as he does not fall too far below the critical asset threshold at which herd dynamics bifurcate. Those who are persistently poor or who become destitute disappear from social networks and do not receive transfers in response to shocks. The resulting social transfers networks are highly asymmetric. These results suggest that asset transfers through social networks are better conceptualized as part of a safety net (with the objective of not letting a household falling into an asset poverty trap) than as informal mutual insurance (with the objective of providing proportional compensation for losses).

Ten years after liberation, the persistence of poverty is one of the most important and urgent questions facing South Africa. This paper reflects on some of the findings of research undertaken as part of the participation of the Programme on Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape in the work of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, situates it within the broader literature on poverty in South Africa, and considers some emergent challenges. Though PLAAS's survey, being only the first wave of a panel study, does not yet cast light on short term poverty dynamics, it illuminates key aspects of the structural conditions that underpin poverty that lasts for a long time: the close interactions between asset poverty, employment vulnerability and subjection to unequal social power relations. Coming to grips with these dynamics requires going beyond the limitations of conventional "sustainable livelihoods" analyses and functionalist analyses of South African labour markets. The paper argues for a re-engagement with the traditions of critical sociology, anthropology and the theoretical traditions that allow a closer exploration of the political economy of chronic poverty at micro and macro level.

This chapter illustrates how a multiperiod bioeconomic household-level model, in which changes in resource quality have feedback effects on future land productivity, can be used to explore the economic and environmental impacts of natural resource management technologies and policies. This model is used to test the influence of land scarcity and asset poverty on incentives to undertake sustainability investments in Andit Tid, in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The results show how land scarcity could drive conservation investments, while poverty in vital assets such as oxen and labour could deter investments in land and water management. The welfare and environmental impacts are very modest but are highest when the conservation technology does not reduce short-term crop yields. Otherwise, the level of adoption of these technologies and their effects on poverty and soil degradation are significantly reduced even when family labour is not limiting

This paper uses PSID data for 1989, 1994, and 1999 to examine why some U.S. households are asset poor, i.e., why households have insufficient resources to invest or to sustain household members at a basic level during times of economic disruption. The study contributes to an improved understanding of asset poverty’s correlates by examining the influence of place of residence; the extant literature has focused on individual-level explanations. We estimate a random-effects logistic model of the probability that an individual is asset poor at a given point in time as a function of household (e.g., gender and race of the head, family structure) and place (region and metropolitan or nonmetropolitan county) variables. The central finding of the paper is that place of residence is an important determinant of asset poverty, above and beyond the influence of household characteristics. We find that living in a central metropolitan county and in a nonmetropolitan area is associated with a higher risk of being asset poor, all else being equal.

Using PSID data for the years 1984 to 1999, we estimate the level and severity of asset poverty. Our results indicate that the share of asset-poor households remained almost the same and the severity of poverty increased during this period, despite the growth in the economy and the financial markets. The race, age, education, and marital status of the household head, and homeownership, are important determinants of asset poverty. There seems to be a downward trend in the contribution to asset poverty of being a college graduate, a married elderly or a black head of household, a single mother, or a married person with children. The contributions of not having a college degree, being a 35 to 49 year-old household head, being a childless nonelderly couple, or being an unmarried elderly person seem to have increased. The contribution to net worth poverty of being a homeowner also went up. Descriptive statistics suggest that changes in the value of assets are more effective in transitions into and out of asset poverty than are changes in debt. Some lifetime events, such as changes in marital, homeownership, or business ownership status, are also correlated with the transitions.

Meeting the 1996 World Food Summit goal of halving chronic hunger in the world by 2015 will require more than 75,000 persons each day exiting the ranks of the food insecure. Is this feasible? Yes. Is the task simple? No. Widespread vulnerability is the complex product of asset poverty, rudimentary food production technologies, weak markets and social support networks, and misdirected formal assistance programs. Combatting vulnerability manifest as food insecurity will require sustained and substantial commitments on each of these fronts in the coming decades.

This report examines the linkages between gender inequality, growth, and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. It documents the interdependence of the market and household economies, and the structural roles of men and women in African economies. Based on country-level case studies, macroeconomic growth modeling, and gender analysis of household survey data, it concludes that reducing gender-based asset inequality increases growth, efficiency, and welfare. Recommendations for public policy intervention are made in five key areas: participation; investment in the household economy; investment in human capital; support for rural livelihood strategies; and engendering national statistics and poverty monitoring.

The literature on economic growth and development has focused considerable attention on questions of risk management and the possibility of multiple equilibria associated with poverty traps. We use herd history data collected among pastoralists in southern Ethiopia to study stochastic wealth dynamics among a very poor population. These data yield several novel findings. Although covariate rainfall shocks plainly matter, household-specific factors, including own herd size, account for most observed variability in wealth dynamics. Despite longstanding conventional wisdom about common property grazing lands, we find no statistical support for the tragedy of the commons hypothesis. It appears that past studies may have conflated costly self-insurance with stocking rate externalities. Such self-insurance is important in this setting because weak livestock markets and meager social insurance cause wealth to fluctuate largely in response to biophysical shocks. These shocks move households between multiple dynamic wealth equilibria toward which households converge following nonconvex path dynamics. The lowest equilibrium is consistent with the notion of a poverty trap. These findings have broad implications for the design of development and relief strategies among a poor population extraordinarily vulnerable to climatic shocks. common property, covariate risk, Ethiopia, idiosyncratic risk, poverty traps, social insurance, Risk and Uncertainty, O1, Q12