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This paper examines poverty and inequality in Pakistan's mountains, using nationally representative data. Our analysis reveals that, despite a slight decline in poverty rates, overall rates remain alarmingly high, with significant variations across provinces and regions. Rural and mountain areas exhibit higher poverty rates (31% in rural areas, 13% in urban areas in 2015/16) compared to urban centers. The national incidence of multidimensional poverty in 2014/15 was 41%, surpassing monetary poverty rates. Notably, rural areas (47%) experienced significantly higher multidimensional poverty than urban centers (12%), with Balochistan's mountainous province recording the highest rates (63%). The four provinces display significant heterogeneity in multidimensional poverty, with district-level variations ranging from 10 to 90% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The majority of districts with high poverty incidence are situated in mountainous regions, where people face multidimensional challenges in accessing basic facilities such as health and education, cooking fuel, and housing. To address this issue, Pakistan needs to prioritize mountain areas and implement targeted programs aimed at improving access to basic services, addressing gender inequalities, and promoting sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty measurement using durable ownership data is an attempt to infer income constraints by observing consumption choices. But what drives household spending choices on durable goods? How do these choices relate to poverty and class? What does it mean to be 'relatively' poor and why should we care to measure it? In this paper, we propose an economic theory of household decision-making that links these questions using a novel wealth-begets-wealth mechanism. We show that the steady state distribution of total (accumulated) household durable expenditures in this model exhibits natural clusters (classes). Furthermore, certain households may be vulnerable to a long run 'poverty of opportunities', being unable to access any of the channels of income generation available in society. Our model shows that relative poverty can be understood as the endogenous outcome of an intergenerational process that perpetuates unequal access to opportunities. This finding has novel implications for the measurement of poverty, which has traditionally hinged on definitions that assume exogenous (often arbitrary) cutoffs. The contribution of this paper also lies in its novel methodology, viz., formulating a theoretical model as the foundation of a data-generating process for synthetic observations, using patterns observed therein to inform the process of poverty measurement. The methodology delivers a framework for generating testable hypotheses around the long-run effect of policy changes (such as income transfers or education subsidies) on relative poverty – an approach that can be applied generally to understand the observed behaviour of economic agents in complex dynamic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human race has been confronting the issue of poverty which is threatening its continued existence for a long time. Poor access to finance can lead to poverty this breeds health issues, lack of access to social and recreational facilities, social delinquencies, reduced living standard, malnutrition and economic difficulties. The goal of defeating poverty in its various ramification remains a cardinal concern for policy formulators in the Nigerian state and international bodies such as the World Bank and United Nations. Following the thriving emergence of financial technology (fintech) in Nigeria, there exist a dearth in academic researches to examine how fintech can be a driver in the reduction of poverty. This study examined the impact of financial technology on poverty reduction in Nigeria. Data on poverty rate, financial technology, mortality rate, literacy rate and gross domestic products were obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin for the period of 1991 - 2021. This study employed the multiple linear regression estimation technique to analyse collected data as it examines a cross-section of major key independent variables across a time series data, on the premise of a common effect model. Data analysed indicates a negative and significant nexus between poverty rate and financial technology innovation. The result also suggest that literacy rate and poverty rate have a negative and insignificant relationship. The poverty rate was also found to be positively and insignificantly related to mortality rate and gross domestic products respectively. The study findings have several significant policy implications. Firstly, infrastructures that support internet and mobile telephony should be expanded by providing incentives for investment since technology is the backbone of the operations of fintech. Secondly, education on fintech, information communication technology and finance should be increased to fill the gap among citizens who are not technological inclined especially in the rural areas to increase the use of fintech. Lastly, there should be further regulatory interventions through reforms to remove the barriers to credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Studies examining profit suggest that former tobacco farmers do as well or better than current tobacco farmers. Research has yet to examine the relationship among current and former tobacco farmers, poverty, and receipt of government social assistance. This type of research is critical to understanding the direct and indirect subsidization of tobacco growing. This study analyzed tobacco farmers' poverty levels and receipt of government social assistance programs. Aims and Methods We designed and conducted an original four-wave economic survey of current and former tobacco farming households in Indonesia between 2016 and 2022. We then used descriptive analysis and probit regression for panel data to estimate the relationship between tobacco farming and poverty status. Results Tobacco farmers' per capita income and poverty rates vary across years. The poverty rate was significantly higher in the year with a higher-than-normal rainfall as it negatively affected farming outcomes. During this year, the poverty rate among current tobacco farmers was also higher than that of former tobacco farmers. Regression estimates from the panel data confirm the association between tobacco farming and the likelihood of being poor. We also found a high share of current tobacco farmers who receive government social assistance programs, such as cash transfer programs and a universal healthcare program. Conclusions Our findings show high poverty rates—particularly during bad farming years—and high rates of government social assistance among tobacco farmers. The high rates of government assistance among tobacco farmers living in poverty show that the government is indirectly subsidizing the tobacco industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant poverty levels raise critical questions about the impact of poverty eradication programs. Literature reviews play a critical role in highlighting impactful and ineffective socio-economic approaches. This article presents a review of nine qualitative studies that were reported between 2006 and 2013 in poor urban, semi-rural, and rural communities in South Africa. The main goal of this paper is to describe how low-income communities were impacted by programs to reduce poverty. Themes on strength-based interventions, participation, and holistic-multidimensional approaches, emerge from the content analysis as the best account of the impact of community-based poverty eradication programs. Due to the qualitative nature of the small sample of studies under review, a thematic synthesis of the qualitative data provides baseline evidence for further research to assess progress in the provision of development programs, and to generate more insight to strengthen evidence-informed approaches to address persistently high rates of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we perform estimates of vulnerability to multidimensional poverty for 17 Latin American countries at three points of time: 2005/2006, 2012, and 2017. We use a Multidimensional Bayesian Network Classifier model to estimate the conditional probability of being multidimensionally poor and then we use these probabilities and the standard downside semi‐deviation as the risk parameter to identify the vulnerable households. Despite significant reductions over the study period, in 2017 approximately 150 million people—excluding Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela for which we do not have recent data—remained vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. We also observe that vulnerability to poverty is reduced at a much slower rate than poverty itself, revealing that achievements in SDG1 can be quite fragile. We perform a decomposition and find that as poverty decreases, risk‐induced vulnerability becomes relatively more important than poverty‐induced vulnerability. However, the poor‐vulnerable still constitute the core vulnerability group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Purpose Methods Results Conclusions Latinos/as/xs continue to face many barriers as they pursue engineering degrees, including remedial placement, lack of access to well‐funded schools, and high poverty rates. We use the concept of arrebatos to describe the internal reckoning that Latino/a/x engineering students experience through their journeys, particularly focusing on the impact of socioeconomic inequalities.To bring counternarratives in engineering education research focusing on the experiences and lived realities of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students. These counternarratives are an important step in interrogating systemic biases and exclusionary cultures, practices, and policies at HSIs and emerging HSIs and within engineering programs.Pláticas were conducted with 22 Latino/a/x engineering undergraduates from four different universities in the US Southwest. These pláticas were coded and analyzed drawing from Anzaldúa's theoretical concept of el arrebato. Special attention was given to participants' arrebatos triggered by their college experiences as low‐income individuals.Analysis indicates that Latino/a/x engineering students' arrebatos arise from events that shake up the foundation of their own identity, including an institutional lack of sociopolitical consciousness. This lack of consciousness becomes evident not only in individuals' attitudes toward these students but also in institutional policies that put them at a further disadvantage.Findings have implications for engineering programs, particularly at HSIs and emerging HSIs regarding the creation of policies and practices that aim to secure the retention of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students and alleviate the systemic barrier they face by affirming the practice of servingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spurred by the need for increased adequacy and international comparability, absolute poverty measures are gaining in policy relevance around the world. This paper proposes a simple and feasible method of calculating absolute poverty thresholds on the basis of households' minimum food needs in advanced economies. It makes three important contributions. First, it demonstrates that conventional statistical methods used in the developing world deliver either unrealistically low or improbably high poverty estimates in rich countries where household spending on food is modest in relative terms. Second, it proposes a new simulation-based inverse method that focuses on the non-food Engel curve and uses predetermined minimum food bundles not as inputs but as targeted reference points in order to calculate adequate poverty thresholds. Finally, an empirical application of the new method using household budget survey data from Italy shows that resulting poverty estimates are comparable to the official figures of the Italian Statistical Office in terms of both the poverty rate and the poverty profiles. Requiring few and easily procurable resources, the proposed algorithm is well suited to produce robust, consistent and internationally comparable absolute poverty estimates in a large number of developed countries and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, firms actively participate in poverty alleviation to comply with the national policy and to build political connections. Whether firms curry favor with the government by increasing spending on poverty alleviation is an interesting research question under the context of anti-corruption campaigns. Using hand-collected data from the period 2016–2018, we examine how anti-corruption campaigns have influenced corporate poverty alleviation spending at the city level. Our results show that anti-corruption campaigns are positively related to corporate poverty alleviation spending. We further identify two possible channels through which the anti-corruption campaign increases corporate poverty alleviation spending: (1) political connections and (2) stock price crash risk. Finally, we find that the effects of the anti-corruption campaign on corporate poverty alleviation spending are stronger in firms located in cities with lower degrees of marketization, a lower media index, and a higher poverty rate, as well as in firms receiving fewer government subsidies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of the 2019/2020 Mozambican household budget survey, in the field both before and during the first phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, we assess the impact of Covid-19 on welfare in 2020, aiming to disentangle this impact from the effect of other shocks. Comparing a number of welfare metrics, and applying propensity score matching and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment approaches, we find that consumption levels are significantly lower and poverty rates substantially higher during the first phases of Covid-19 than in the pre-Covid-19 period. Moreover, the impact was greater in urban areas and accordingly in the more urbanised southern region. Non-food expenditures suffered relatively more than food expenditures, likely a coping strategy, while the impact on consumption levels was greater for people working in the secondary and tertiary sectors than for workers in the primary sector, mainly agriculture. Stunting among under-5 children also suffered. Only a limited number of countries have actual, collected in-person, survey data that span across the initial phases of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the present analysis adds value to our understanding of the welfare consequences of Covid-19 in a low-income context, where automatic social safety nets were not in place during the early phases of the pandemic. More specifically, it helps in assessing the results of previous welfare impact simulations, compared to real data. Even though our main findings are broadly in line with existing estimates based on simulations or phone surveys, important differences between the predictions and the actual results emerge. We conclude that it is critically important for Mozambique and its development partners to develop stronger and more targeted policies and tools to respond to temporary shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial data is data that contains the influence of location with non-homogeneous variance at each location, or spatial heterogeneity. To address spatial heterogeneity, the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model is used. However, in the GWR model, there is a phenomenon of multicollinearity, which is a strong relationship between independent variables that will reduce the accuracy of parameter estimation. To overcome multicollinearity in the GWR model, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) method is used. The LASSO method estimates the parameters of the GWR model by minimizing the sum of squared errors subject to a constraint function, which is solved using the Least Angle Regression (LARS) algorithm. This results in the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression model to address the problem of multicollinearity in spatial data. Based on the research results, the LASSO method can overcome multicollinearity by shrinking the coefficients of parameters that contribute less and have a strong correlation with other independent variables in the GWR model, resulting in 33 final models. One of the models is for Nias Regency, where the factors influencing the poverty rate are the open unemployment rate, life expectancy, average length of schooling, gross participation rate, and per capita income. In Nias Regency, the value of s is 0.288 with an R-squared value of 0.9403. In Nias Regency, 94.03% of the variation in the poverty rate is explained by the independent variables in the model, while the remaining 5.97% is attributed to external factors not covered by the model. Coefficient of the Human Development Index variable shrinks to exactly zero, indicating that it has no effect on the poverty rate in Nias Regency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring poverty reduction requires frequent microdata on household welfare that can be compared over time. Such data are unavailable in many countries, given limited statistical capacity, shocks that prevent data collection, and regular improvements to survey methodology. This paper demonstrates how jointly deploying backcasting and survey-to-survey imputations can help to overcome this in a setting where estimating a poverty trend is badly needed, given the scale of the poverty-reduction challenge, but where survey-to-survey imputations are more likely to succeed and can be directly tested. In Nigeria, the most recent official survey that can be used to construct an imputation model was collected through the same methodology and in the same year as the target survey. This data landscape could arise in other settings where the methodology for smaller, interstitial surveys is updated more quickly than for larger, official consumption surveys. Naively comparing Nigeria's last two official consumption surveys would suggest that the poverty rate fell by 17 percentage points between 2009 and 2019. Yet the methods presented in this paper both suggest a much smaller reduction in poverty of between 3 and 7 percentage points, echoing Nigeria's performance on nonmonetary welfare indicators over the same period. The paper therefore provides guidance on when and how backcasting and survey-to-survey imputation techniques can be most valuable for monitoring poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm clusters are considered as a contributing factor to local economic development. However, there are limited studies on the effect of firm clusters on the well‐being of rural communities, particularly in terms of income improvement, poverty reduction, and migration. Our research aims to shed light on these relationships at both the household and commune levels. For empirical analysis, we employ the propensity score matching method to mitigate endogeneity bias. Our results reveal the role of firm clusters in increasing income and reducing poverty. Firm clusters also contribute to decreasing labor emigration and attracting immigrants. However, the magnitude of these impacts is relatively small, with moderate effects on income and modest effects on poverty and migration. In particular, firm clusters reduce the commune poverty rate by around 2.36%–2.51% and enhance household annual income by approximately 16.46–17.08 million VND (725–752 USD). Furthermore, analyses at the household level highlight the significance of larger clusters in improving household income. Our research underscores policy implications for rural development with a specific emphasis on firm clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 is to end poverty by all means possible. This study aims to analyze the role of the capabilities of the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) in the effectiveness of the Government Internal Control System (SPIP) and the extent of its influence on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Indonesia. This study uses data from 508 District/City Governments in Indonesia with a final sample of 2005 observations. The results indicate that APIP capabilities have contributed to the effectiveness of SPIP. In addition, it was found that the capabilities of APIP and SPIP play a role in reducing poverty levels in Districts/Cities in Indonesia, thus potentially increasing the achievement of the SDGs. Meanwhile, SPIP in this study did not mediate the effect of APIP capabilities on the achievement of the SDGs. The implications of this study are closely related to transformation efforts to achieve the SDGs, in relation to poverty alleviation in the regions. Therefore, as a strategy for achieving the SDGs and simultaneously reducing poverty rates in the regions, the District/City Governments need to establish supporting policies to ensure the implementation of programs that enhance APIP capabilities and the effectiveness of SPIP administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the impact of government and private investment on poverty rates in Indonesia’s nickel-producing provinces (South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Maluku). By utilizing the panel data analysis approach from 2013 to 2022, we can observe how the realization of Foreign Investment (PMA), Domestic Investment (PMDN), and Government Investment (BM) affects poverty reduction. The study’s findings suggest that Domestic Investment (PMDN) has considerable impact on poverty reduction. Meanwhile, the realization of Foreign Investment (PMA) and Government Investment (BM) had no substantial impact on poverty reduction in nickel-producing provinces. Along with the increase in the amount of foreign investment and government investment in nickel-producing provinces in Indonesia, research shows that the results do not have a significant effect on alleviating poverty in these nickel-producing provinces. So investment must be encouraged to be more inclusive or encourage labor-intensive investment. The government and corporate sector can utilize this information to help determine the direction of investment in Indonesia’s nickel-producing provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on governments' use of social media focuses on the national or federal level. We therefore know little about the way local authorities harness social media platforms to communicate with their constituencies. This paper studies the role structural and political variables played in Chilean mayors' political communication strategies during 2020–2021, a period of municipal elections marked by lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluate whether the volume and characteristics of mayors' social media posts are related to political factors (partisanship; alignment or not with the governing block; years in office), socioeconomic characteristics (poverty rate; age profile; health infrastructure; etc.); and the incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths at the municipal level. We found that mayors' social media communication strategies depend on the functions that different municipalities perform in the territory, and that socioeconomic variables differentiate these activities. More specifically, we found that mayors of poorer communities made more extensive use of social media during lockdown periods than did mayors of more affluent municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty exists not only in low and middle-income countries but also in high-income countries. Brunei, a rich country heavily reliant on hydrocarbon in Southeast Asia, is not an exception. Though poverty is not a topic that is politically taboo in Brunei, there are no statistics on poverty in Brunei. Yet, having such statistics would aid the government to achieve the target of zero poverty in 2035. Therefore, this technical paper provides a pioneering estimation of poverty rates in Brunei, utilising published data from 'Household Expenditure Surveys' and focusing on the basic need approach. It calculates monthly household poverty rates based on the World Bank's poverty lines and OECD median income approach. It produces poverty rates based on expenditure and income. The research employs two models: a proportional model and a refined model. The results show declining rates of poverty, regardless of the poverty lines and models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food security is a strategic issue for densely populated areas like the Province of DKI Jakarta, which has limited agricultural land. This research aims to analyze the implementation of food security policies in DKI Jakarta, focusing on a case study of PT Food Station Tjipinang Jaya (FSJT) as the policy implementer. The study employs a qualitative approach using literature review methods, with data collected from various written sources such as regional regulations, official reports, scientific publications, and related websites. Through content analysis and data source triangulation, this research identifies FSJT's success in maintaining food availability, improving food access, strengthening the distribution system, and supporting local farmers. However, the implementation of the policy also faces challenges such as land limitations, food price fluctuations, changing dietary patterns, and program sustainability. Supporting data shows FSJT's contribution to the reduction of the poverty rate in DKI Jakarta from 11.5% (2021) to 10.56% (2022), as well as the distribution of 1.2 million tons of rice in 2022. Surveys also noted that 82% of the public were satisfied with FSJT's performance in maintaining food availability. To enhance food security in the future, recommendations include the development of vertical farming, strengthening community food resilience, nutritional education campaigns, and diversification of food sources. Ongoing efforts through these measures are essential to ensure the effective implementation of food security policies and the sustainability of development in the Province of DKI Jakarta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current compounded economic crisis in Lebanon has increased poverty rates and widened the gap between families of different socioeconomic classes. Little is known about the impact of advertising, particularly smartphone advertising, on the self‐esteem and materialism levels of children in developing countries like Lebanon. This study aimed to measure the differences among children coming from lower and upper socioeconomic classes in the following: smartphone advertising exposure, materialism and self‐esteem, vulnerability to the effects of smartphone advertising exposure on materialism, and vulnerability to the effects of materialism on self‐esteem. It was found that advertising affected negatively the self‐esteem of the children coming from lower social classes, including the "newly poor," because in the current economic situation, children who are more exposed to advertising are more likely to believe in advertising, have lower self‐satisfaction, and believe themselves to be inferior for not owning the various products that are advertised, which lead them to become more materialistic than children from wealthier families. On the other hand, advertising had a reinforcing effect on materialism among more affluent children. In addition, and contrary to the expected, children from higher social classes, and not children from deprived households, were more susceptible to the impact of advertising on materialism. These findings enlighten us on the significant role that today's advertising plays in societies with wide socioeconomic disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the interaction between Special Autonomy Fund, Village Fund, and Zakat in poverty reduction efforts in Aceh Province. As a region with special autonomy status, Aceh receives a transfer allocation from the central government, which aims to accelerate development and improve people's welfare. In addition, village funds managed directly by the village government and zakat collected through religious institutions play an important role in supporting the local economy and social of the poor. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of special autonomy fund, village fund, and zakat on poverty rate in Aceh Province in the short run and long run. The method used is Panel ARDL by analyzing data from 23 districts/cities in Aceh Province during the period 2015-2022. The estimation results show that the special autonomy fund variable has a negative and significant effect on the poverty rate in Aceh Province in the short term, but has no significant effect in the long term. The village fund variable has a negative and significant effect on poverty in the short term, but has a positive and significant effect in the long term. Zakat has a negative and significant effect on poverty both in the short and long term. The Aceh Provincial Government should conduct more intensive policies in reducing poverty, especially the variables of special autonomy funds, village funds and zakat so that these problems can be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Rental housing affordability, a growing topic in interdisciplinary scholarship, remains relatively peripheral to geography and regional science. This article focuses on geographies of rent burden and factors affecting it at the metropolitan level in the conterminous U.S. By conducting cartographic and regression analyses, we examine relationships between rent burden and numerous related aspects derived from scholarly work. Besides offering a new measurement of rent burden, we put a special emphasis on regional economic specializations as potential predictors of rent burden's intensity. The relationship between these two have not been studied in existing scholarship. Our results indicate that the most consistent determinants of more intense rent burden in numerous models include higher housing values and poverty rates, substantial shares of racial/ethnic minorities, and family structure represented by lower percent married. Regarding economic specializations, we find that manufacturing is a strong predictor of lower rent burden in most models, with its effect demonstrating an opposite direction--higher rent burden occurs in metropolises not specializing in manufacturing. Simultaneously, metropolises with substantial concentrations of employment in (i) education and medicine and (ii) arts, entertainment, and recreation exhibit higher rent burden and most of these metropolises are mid- and small-sized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital financial inclusion has become an important way to reduce poverty and prevent poverty return; however, few studies examine the relationship between digital financial inclusion measurement with poverty return governance. Based on data from the 2017 China Household Financial Survey, we construct a digital financial inclusion indicator for micro‐households, and explore its impact on the risk of households returning to poverty and its mechanisms. Our findings suggest that digital financial inclusion can reduce the risk of Chinese families returning to poverty, and that it has heterogeneous effects on families and regions with different characteristics. The main function is to improve household income level by promoting entrepreneurship and employment, and to improve risk resistance by enhancing household financial market participation and household asset allocation. Further analysis shows that digital financial inclusion has structural effects, nonlinear effects, and substitution effects with private lending in poverty governance. This paper has implications for understanding and improving the poverty governance effectiveness of digital financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Chicago UPK expansion increased access to free, full-day pre-K for 4-year-olds. • There was no negative effect on 3-year-old enrollment in free, full-day pre-K. • Most of the full-day expansion was offset by declines in half-day seats. • An earlier, targeted system had increased access in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. • All communities across the city had increases in access through the UPK expansion. In 2019, Chicago began transitioning from a targeted pre-K program to free, full-day universal pre-K (UPK). By design, the transition intended to expand capacity over a few years, prioritizing access in more disadvantaged areas before moving on to more advantaged areas. We analyzed the transition path, showing capacity and enrollment over time across neighborhoods categorized by poverty rates, racial and ethnic composition, and economic resources. We also used a difference-in-differences approach to examine the causal impact of the expansion on access and explore implications for equity. We found that Chicago's UPK increased 4-year-old enrollment in free, full-day pre-K programs in Chicago Public Schools, largely through replacing half-day seats with full-day seats, with no negative effect on 3-year-old enrollment. We also found that capacity and enrollment generally were expanded earlier in neighborhoods with higher levels of disadvantage. Importantly, all communities across the city experienced increases in capacity and enrollment through the UPK expansion, suggesting it is possible to expand access across sociodemographic groups without compromising access for children living in historically underinvested neighborhoods. As local efforts across the nation expand to increase access to publicly funded programs, the Chicago UPK expansion can serve as a model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development can be described as a process of system or non-social system in order to achieve a better condition. It is often related to public welfare as evidenced by the poverty phenomenon experienced by the population. The population growth in a country must be controlled in order to prevent a threat to the country’s welfare, since an increase in the population will lead to an increase in the need for fulfillment. This condition should be balanced with a proper income alignment. East Java Province has the second highest population in Indonesia. In fact, this condition has had an impact on the economic development process, particularly in East Java, where there has been an increase in the poverty rate. Over the past decade, the poverty rate in East Java has fluctuated. It showed an increase in a few years, namely 2015, 2020, and 2021, with an average increase of 0.88%. This study aims to identify the effects of several factors on the poverty rate in East Java between 2017 and 2022. Furthermore, this study used a quantitative method with a panel regression analysis. The independent variables included open unemployment rate, labor force participation rate, minimum wage, and education level. This study found that open unemployment rate and minimum wage affected poverty rate. In contrast, labor force participation rate and education level did not affect poverty rate.

Background. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a heterogeneous group of medical conditions that commonly occur in underprivileged populations. NTDs are primarily diagnosed in tropical areas. Although South Africa is not situated in a tropical region, the high poverty rate makes the country susceptible to some NTDs. Limited data are available on the burden of NTDs in the Free State province of South Africa. This study aimed to determine the number of NTDs diagnosed on histopathological specimens in the public sector of the Free State province over a six‐year period and to evaluate the patient demographics. Methods. A retrospective, descriptive study was performed. All NTDs diagnosed in histopathological specimens from public sector hospitals in the province submitted to the Department of Anatomical Pathology, National Health Laboratory Service, and University of the Free State between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 were included in the study. The demographic information, biopsy site, and referring hospital were noted for each case identified. Results. A total of 72 NTDs were diagnosed. The five most common diagnoses were echinococcosis (n = 33; 45.8%), bilharzia (n = 13; 18.1%), leprosy (n = 9; 12.5%), mycetoma (n = 8; 11.1%), and intestinal worms (n = 5; 6.9%). Ten (30.3%) patients diagnosed with echinococcosis came from the Free State's neighbouring country, Lesotho. Conclusion. Echinococcosis was the most prevalent NTD diagnosed in central South Africa. We recommend that the South African Department of Health add echinococcosis to the principal NTDs of significance in South Africa, alongside soil‐transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis, leprosy, and rabies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Purpose Approach and methods Findings Policy implications Donors allocate huge sums for assistance intended for poverty reduction to countries that arguably do not need it. For example, the United States spends more in Jordan—with no extreme poverty—than it does in the six countries with the highest poverty rates in the world combined, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Prior studies have suggested that if global aid were allocated according to need, it could roughly double its impact on poverty reduction.Country need can be broken down into the magnitude of the development challenge and the domestic resources available. This study examines these two components of development need to determine which countries have the greatest need for foreign assistance.I produce a set of data‐driven observations documenting the magnitude of the challenge and the resources available. I first explore which countries have the highest rates of absolute and multidimensional poverty. I then examine which countries have the ability to redistribute by comparing their poverty gaps with the potential domestic resources available. This produces the marginal tax rate (MTR) required for a country to finance its own poverty eradication.There is a clear trend in the magnitude of the challenge: low‐income countries (LICs) have the highest poverty rates by far; lower middle‐income countries (LMICs) are more mixed; and upper middle‐income countries (UMICs) have comparatively little extreme poverty, except in a small handful of countries. The implied MTRs required to close a country's extreme poverty gap are excessively high for LICs and most LMICs but easily manageable for most UMICs. This strongly suggests that both the magnitude of the challenge is much greater and the resources available much lower in LICs and LMICs.The policy implication is that LICs and LMICs should be strongly favoured in terms of aid allocation. The two different components of country need point in the same direction and both suggest a strong focus on allocating assistance towards the poorest countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Custodial mothers experience high rates of poverty and income volatility in the United States. Emerging evidence suggests that the regularity of child support is positively associated with the regularity of family income and ability to meet basic needs. However, we know little about how child support regularity matters for mothers' employment. In this study, we examine the associations between child support regularity and custodial mothers' employment in a nationally representative US sample covering 1997–2019. We find that regular child support receipt, versus no receipt, is associated with increases in part-time employment and decreases in full-time employment but find no associations with annual weeks worked or earnings. Among employed mothers, we also find increases in job stability within the year. We find some heterogeneity in these associations by maternal education and age of youngest child. Our findings suggest that child support regularity might support mothers' stable part-time employment without compromising earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the launch of a new publication titled "What Have the Liberals Ever Done for Us?" by the Liberal Democrat History Group. The publication summarizes the achievements of Liberals and Liberal Democrats over the past 350 years, focusing on topics such as human rights, fair votes, government reform, gender equality, international relations, economy, education, welfare, health, and the environment. The article highlights the contributions of key figures such as Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, David Steel, and Lloyd George. It emphasizes the importance of defending people's rights and acknowledges the challenges faced in the future. The publication is available for purchase online or by mail. The given text discusses various topics related to the Liberal Party and its history. It mentions the party's stance on old age pensions and guaranteed basic income, as well as its commitment to eradicating poverty in the UK. The text also highlights the party's support for free trade, international institutions, and the European Union. It emphasizes the Liberal Party's role in championing the welfare state and its opposition to the Iraq War. The text concludes with a discussion on the party's messaging and the importance of its history in shaping its identity. [Extracted from the article]

Empirical research on poverty today often goes beyond a focus on income to consider other dimensions of well‐being. However, relatively few multidimensional poverty measures explicitly consider time‐use, despite its particular relevance to women's double burden of paid and unpaid work. We construct a bivariate relative poverty line between income and leisure, based on their joint distribution in the population. Because the strength of the dependence between income and leisure influences the vulnerability to poverty, we incorporate distributional regression into copula models. Utilizing the 2018 Mexican National Survey of Households, Income and Expenses, we investigate differences in bidimensional poverty with respect to gender and ethnicity. We find that the fraction defined as bidimensional poor is 18 percent points higher than the poverty rate computed from separate time and income measures. Those below the relative but above the absolute poverty line are primarily non‐indigenous women whose poverty is made visible by our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the contribution of institutional reforms to economic growth. To this end, we distinguish between several classes of institutional reform in the approach to economic liberalisation. Based on a sample of 24 current and former transition economies for the period 1980–2016, we estimate the counterfactual scenarios related to each distinctive institutional approach to the economic liberalisation by making use of the synthetic control method. Our evidence uncovers notable contrasts in the long‐term effectiveness of designated policy approaches in recovering from the transitional recession. A variety of synthetic control estimates suggests that a sustained big bang approach (rapid reforms) appears to be the most effective approach, while an abortive and gradualist approach tends to produce a permanent breakdown of the growth trajectories relative to the estimated counterfactuals. The point estimates survive an extensive battery of placebo tests. By employing the same methodological tool kit, future research could examine the impact of transition reforms on other socio‐economic variables, such as the poverty rates, income inequalities, health and environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Provincial Government of Lampung plays an important role in realizing an independent village, where they are responsible for economic progress, infrastructure, development, and even education. Village independence in Lampung Province still needs to be improved. Based on the results of research conducted by the author both at the Community Empowerment Service (PMD) of Lampung Province and the community, especially village apparatus in Lampung Province, information was obtained that almost 100% of the programs in the village depended heavily on the Village Fund (DD) and ADD (Village Fund Budget). In addition, based on the poverty rate for Lampung Province it still needs to be pressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to analyze the role of Sharia economics in alleviating poverty in Indonesia. The method used in this research is a literature study, which is a series of activities relating to methods of collecting library data, reading and taking notes, as well as processing reading material into research data. Some of the literature that researchers use as data sources are books, journal articles, and news related to the role of Sharia economics in reducing poverty rates in Indonesia. One of the goals of religion is to encourage people from being left behind economically. Poverty is a serious problem that must be sought immediately for a solution because it can have very dangerous impacts, including disturbing one's faith or it could even disappear and that person becomes a disbeliever. The potential for ziswaf in Indonesia is extraordinary. If it can be managed professionally, it will have an impact on the welfare of society. How to overcome poverty can be done with various steps and strategies. The thing that must be done from the start to overcome the poverty that grips our society is to create an economic order that allows for a fair distribution system to be born, encouraging the birth of concern from people who have (aghniya') toward the needy, poor, dhu'afa' and mustard 'affine. One form of concern for Aghniya' is his willingness to pay zakat and issue sadaqah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations claims that education is a crucial element in reducing poverty rates in any country if it is accessible, adaptable, acceptable, and affordable; known as the 4A's of education, which are considered within the national education policy. This paper analyzes the effect of the 4A's of education on multidimensional moderate-income poverty and extreme income poverty in Mexico in the years 2010 and 2020. This is achieved with the analysis of microdata from the Module of Socioeconomic Conditions of the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure (MCS - ENIGH) 2010 and 2020 and with dichotomous logit models. The results indicate that the 4A's have a greater effect on the reduction of multidimensional extreme income poverty than on moderate, even over different periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate the role of the high speed railway (HSR) project, one of the largest transportation infrastructure projects in the world, in poverty alleviation in China. This study combines county-level data from the China County Statistical Yearbooks with HSR data from the China Railway Yearbooks. The method of difference-in-differences is applied to examine the HSR connection effect on government expenditure in poverty alleviation across Chinese poverty counties over the period of 2010-2018. The results show that the HSR connection has a significantly positive impact on reducing government expenditure in poverty alleviation. Our results, which are based on alternative measurement of poverty alleviation and possible bias arising from endogeneity issue, are robust. This paper highlights that HSR can help achieve accessibility of rural area and poverty alleviation simultaneously. An understanding of the effect is critical for policymakers to promote intra-regional development, balancing efficiency and regional equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature suggests that access to electricity has a positive impact on household's living standards and social welfare. This paper sheds new light on this discussion. Using expenditure dependent equivalence scales, this paper examines the impact of electricity access on food consumption economies of scale (FCES) and thereby the poverty measurements of households with and without access to electricity in Sri Lanka during 1990-2016. Results indicate that a low-income household of four adults with access to electricity spends about 20% less on food compared to a similar household without access to electricity. The results also reveal that although the incorporation of FCES into poverty measurements reduces the overall poverty levels considerably, the reduction in poverty levels is about 1.2% higher for households with electricity at the national level. These observations are consistent across the national and sub-national levels, however, with varying magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies the effectiveness of South Sumatra Provincial Government's financial assistance budget transfer on Poverty Levels and the Human Development Index. This fiscal transfer from the Provincial Government is to assist and support the Regency/City Governments' budget for their development program. The problem of this study is to identify the effect of this fiscal transfer to support the Regency/City Government in reducing poverty level and increasing Human Development Index. A coefficient of determination analysis is applied to assess the effect of the provincial financial assistance to reduce poverty rates and increase the Human Development Index. Analysis is also conducted to identify opportunities for the implementation of Ecological Fiscal Transfer model for the allocation of financial assistance budget. The study analyzes data from the Regional Budget of South Sumatra Province for the last 10 years. Coefficient of determination analysis shows that the fiscal transfer in the form of financial assistance fails to explain the variation of poverty rates and the Human Development Index in the area. Following that, the study also adopted an Ecological Fiscal Transfer model to simulate the allocation of Provincial Financial Assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional poverty is one of the most serious challenges facing the world today. Poverty, antipoverty, and poverty alleviation are the focus of the attention of scholars and the public. This paper takes China's counties as the research unit, selects the influencing factors of poverty from natural and socio-economic factors, establishes an evaluation index system, simulates the natural poverty index and socio-economic poverty eradication index of each county, and clarifies the distribution characteristics of spatial poverty using GIS spatial analysis and BP artificial neural network. The results indicate that natural factors are the main cause of poverty in Chinese counties, with 710 counties having a high natural poverty index, accounting for nearly 30% of the total number of counties in the country. The national county-level natural poverty index shows a clear strip distribution pattern along latitude and longitude, with a strip distribution from north to south and from west to east; socio-economic factors have played a certain role in poverty alleviation, with as many as 1521 counties with low socio-economic poverty alleviation indices, accounting for approximately 64% of the total number of counties in the country. The spatial distribution of the county-level socio-economic poverty alleviation index is relatively fragmented. Through spatial scanning statistics, a total of 44 county poverty pressure index risk clusters reached a statistical significance level, involving 243 counties and districts. In poverty reduction practice, the internal counties and districts of contiguous poverty-stricken areas should strengthen cooperation and exchange. In the process of poverty alleviation and development, targeted poverty alleviation and economic development should be carried out based on the poverty-dominant type and self-development ability of the county, in order to improve efficiency. Regions that are relatively prosperous and have taken the lead in poverty reduction should play a leading and exemplary role in strengthening the radiation power of regional central cities. The prominent feature of this study is the comprehensive utilization of multisource data and the use of new spatial analysis methods (flexible spatial scanning method is widely used in the field of infectious disease prevention and control research). By constructing a multidimensional poverty measurement system that includes natural and social factors, it distinguishes the differences between the factors that cause poverty and the factors that eliminate poverty in regional poverty. At the same time, the flexible spatial scanning detection method was used to detect the differentiation mechanism of poverty spatial patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The accessibility of pharmacies has been associated with overall health and wellbeing. Past studies have suggested that low income and racial minority communities are underserved by pharmacies. However, the literature is inconsistent in finding links between area-level income or racial and ethnic composition and access to pharmacies. Here we aim to assess area-level spatial access to pharmacies across New York State (NYS), hypothesizing that Census Tracts with higher poverty rates and higher percentages of Black and Hispanic residents would have lower spatial access. Methods: The population weighted mean shortest road network distance (PWMSD) to a pharmacy in 2018 was calculated for each Census Tract in NYS. This statistic was calculated from the shortest road network distance to a pharmacy from the centroid of each Census block within a tract, with the mean across census blocks weighted by the population of the census block. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted to assess links between Tract-level socio demographic characteristics and Tract-level PWMSD to a pharmacy. Results: Overall the mean PWMSD to a pharmacy across Census tracts in NYS was 2.07 Km (SD = 3.35, median 0.85 Km). Shorter PWMSD to a pharmacy were associated with higher Tract-level % poverty, % Black/African American (AA) residents, and % Hispanic/Latino residents and with lower Tract-level % of residents with a college degree. Compared to tracts in the lowest quartile of % Black/AA residents, tracts in the highest quartile had a 70.7% (95% CI 68.3–72.9%) shorter PWMSD to a pharmacy. Similarly, tracts in the highest quartile of % poverty had a 61.3% (95% CI 58.0-64.4%) shorter PWMSD to a pharmacy than tracts in the lowest quartile. Conclusion: The analyses show that tracts in NYS with higher racial and ethnic minority populations and higher poverty rates have higher spatial access to pharmacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the causal impact of export growth on Chilean local economic development during 2000-2006 by exploiting spatial and temporal variations in local exposure stemming from the interaction of past differences in industry specialization across local labor markets and the evolution of tariffs cuts and exports across industries. We find that growing exports implied a significant reduction in labor informality and labor income gains in more exposed local markets, driven by job creation and wage growth in the formal sector. These effects concentrate on senior skilled workers. Exposed locations also exhibit a greater relative decline in the poverty rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing multidimensional relative poverty is one of the important issues in the current global poverty governance field. This article takes 12 ethnic regions in China as the research object and constructs a multidimensional relative poverty measurement system. The calculated multidimensional relative poverty index is decomposed according to provinces, cities, dimensions, and indicators. Then, the Dagum Gini coefficient and convergence analysis are used to analyze spatiotemporal heterogeneity and convergence characteristics. The results show that the multi-dimensional relative poverty situation of various provinces in ethnic minority areas has improved from 2012 to 2021, among which Tibet province is the most serious and Shaanxi is the best. According to the analysis of convergence, it was observed that there is no σ-convergence of multidimensional relative poverty in ethnic areas in general, and there is absolute β-convergence in general and in the southwest and northwest regions, and there is no absolute β-convergence in the northeast region. Based on this, policy recommendations for reducing multidimensional relative poverty are proposed at the end of the article. Compared with previous studies, this article focuses on ethnic regions that are easily overlooked. Starting from the dimensions of economy, social development, and ecological environment, the poverty measurement system has been enriched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the social disparities and resource allocation challenges faced by rural and urban communities in the United States, particularly in the context of emergency management and healthcare. It presents two perspectives on whether rural or urban communities should receive more funding for emergency management. The policy point argues that rural communities should receive more funding due to their lack of resources, limited healthcare access, and higher vulnerability during disasters. The policy counterpoint argues that urban communities, with their larger populations, also require significant funding for emergency management programs. The article provides case studies and examples to support both perspectives. It also discusses the disparities in healthcare resource allocation between urban and rural communities, highlighting the need for more resources in urban areas to meet the healthcare needs of diverse populations, while also addressing the challenges faced by rural communities such as limited access to healthcare facilities. The article suggests solutions such as telehealth services for rural areas and community-led economic initiatives for urban areas to address these disparities. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration between government agencies, healthcare providers, and community organizations to ensure equitable access to resources and services for all populations. [Extracted from the article]

This brief report provides an overview of Maine (USA) families using the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau and other governmental sources. This report provides basic descriptive information on Maine families such as population rates, family composition, and ethnic and racial diversity. It also provides an overview of issues impacting Maine families including poverty rates, employment rates, educational attainment, and marriage and divorce rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief report provides an overview of the state of families in Vermont. The data used in this report is from the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Vermont Department of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others. Key findings include demographic data on families, including family size, family composition, ethnic and racial diversity, income, and poverty rates. The report also detailed challenges faced by Vermont families and programs offered to help families navigate these challenges. The data presented in this report can be used to inform policies and programs aimed at improving the well-being of families in Vermont. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence on the effect of local prescription opioid use on academic achievement of 3rd–8th graders between 2009 and 2018. Using county fixed effects models, I find that when counties have higher levels of prescription opioid use, students score lower on standardized assessments two to three years later, with variation by student subgroups and magnitudes comparable to effective interventions. I find the largest magnitudes in counties with higher poverty rates and states with below-median state education spending. As test score effects predict adult outcomes, these findings point to economic and public health challenges when affected children become adults. Highlights I examine the relationship between local prescription opioid use and academic achievement of 3rd to 8th graders in Math and English Language Arts (ELA). Using county-fixed effects models, I find that when counties have higher prescription opioid use, lower levels of academic achievement in Math and ELA emerge two to three years later. Among white and economically disadvantaged students, this effect is similar in magnitude to other effective academic interventions and detrimental factors. I also find suggestive evidence that the effects are larger in counties with higher poverty rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community gardens are more popular than ever, yet we know little about how leadership structure and neighborhood characteristics relate to programming. Hence, this paper analyzes how the racial/ethnic backgrounds of the community garden leaders are related to the activities the garden undertakes. What types of initiatives do gardens undertake to reduce food insecurity? The paper analyzes how the location of the garden impacts what it does. The article presents novel findings on the impact of leadership and neighborhood characteristics on community garden operations and outcomes. Hence, the essay examines how the race/ethnicity of garden managers and their sex and neighborhood characteristics, such as poverty rate, household income, and racial composition, are related to garden initiatives. Finally, the paper examines how community gardens responded to increased demands for food and services during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. We studied 53 community gardens in Michigan from the summer 2020 through the winter 2021. Whites manage 66% (35) of the gardens, while People of Color manage 34% (18). Roughly half of the gardens are managed by males and the remainder by females. The gardens, which lack paid staff, rely heavily on volunteers. Almost 53% of the gardens are in low-income census tracts (with median income of $40,000 or less). During the pandemic, 31% of the gardens reduced their staff, 51.4% had fewer volunteers than in pre-pandemic times, and 51.9% had increased amounts of people seeking food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on the development of the long‐term relative poverty rate in Europe. We use European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data (EU‐SILC) for 26 European countries between 2009 and 2018. In addition to describing the development of long‐term poverty, we also analyse the drivers of poverty on the country level via fixed effects panel regression analysis. We are particularly interested in how economic growth, employment rates, social expenditure, and short‐term poverty rates are related to long‐term poverty. Overall, the results show that long‐term poverty has increased in 13 out of 26 countries, but was unchanged or decreased in 13 countries. Gross domestic product growth is not related to the development of long‐term poverty. However, we find that male employment and social welfare expenditure reduce poverty rates. Furthermore, short‐term poverty is negatively associated with long‐term poverty. Hence, short‐term poverty and long‐term poverty rather substitute than complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to comprehensively examine the determinants of household poverty in Brazil, placing a specific emphasis on the heads of households as the primary unit of analysis. Household poverty is a critical and multifaceted issue in developing countries, a reality that holds true for Brazil as well. Understanding the intricate web of factors that contribute to household poverty is of paramount importance to policymakers, researchers, and advocates dedicated to poverty alleviation and socioeconomic development. Household poverty remains a persistent challenge in Brazil, with far-reaching social and economic consequences. To address this issue effectively, it is essential to identify the factors that contribute to poverty among households, particularly those led by individuals who are the primary income earners. These households often face unique economic and social challenges that demand targeted interventions. To analyze household poverty determinants, this study utilizes data from the "Pesquisa Nacional por Amostras de Domicílios Contínua" (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) (PNADC). The dataset provides comprehensive information on the individual characteristics of the household head and household-level attributes, offering a nuanced view of the factors at play. A probit model is employed to estimate the probability of a household head experiencing poverty, allowing for a examination of various factors. The research findings reveal several significant determinants of household poverty in Brazil. Firstly, households led by men are found to be less likely to be in a situation of poverty, shedding light on gender-related disparities in income and opportunities. Secondly, households with heads who have attained higher levels of education exhibit a lower probability of being in poverty, underscoring the importance of education as a pathway out of poverty. Moreover, urban households are found to be less prone to poverty compared to their rural counterparts, since households led by individuals who work in agricultural-related activities are more likely to experience poverty. This emphasizes the need for targeted rural development strategies. Additionally, households located in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil face a higher likelihood of poverty, possibly due to regional economic disparities that require specific policy attention. These findings have important policy implications for poverty alleviation efforts in Brazil. Policymakers should consider targeted interventions that focus on improving access to education, particularly in regions with higher poverty rates, as education is a powerful tool for poverty reduction. Efforts to promote gender equality and enhance economic opportunities in rural areas are also essential to address the diverse causes of poverty. Additionally, regional disparities in poverty should be addressed through comprehensive regional development initiatives that take into account the unique challenges faced by different areas of the country. Our results also highlight the importance of community-specific social programs, including conditional-cash transfers and incentives for childhood education, which can play a pivotal role in breaking the cycle of poverty in Brazil's diverse communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]