Download or read book Poverty and the Economic Transition written by Peter Lanjouw and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1998 Has the economic transition in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union been harder on pensioner households or on households containing children? Do per capita measures of welfare give a misleading picture? Much attention has been paid to the relative vulnerability of two well-defined household groups during the transition. Some observers argue that old-age pensioner households have been relatively protected because of a less steep decline in real pensions compared with wages in most transition economies. By contrast, households with young children are believed to have experienced a substantial decline in living standards under reform and show strikingly higher rates of measured poverty than pensioner households. But others argue that the elderly have suffered more than the young during the transition. Can these conflicting viewpoints about the relative poverty of old and young households be arbitrated? Lanjouw, Milanovic, and Paternostro show that strong (though implicit) assumptions underpin certain poverty comparisons. Notably, using a per capita measure of individual welfare assumes that there are no economies of scale in household consumption, in the sense that the per capita cost of reaching a specific level of welfare does not fall as household size increases. Relaxing that assumption could affect comparisons, showing higher poverty rates among the elderly because their households tend to be smaller than the households containing children. Even the nature of the transition has implications for economies of scale. The relative cost of housing and other goods and services with at least some public-good characteristics has risen rapidly. These relative price shifts hit small households particularly hard, because a greater share of their expenditures goes to public and quasi-public goods. But transition economies have also experienced big increases in the relative prices of goods and services consumed largely by children, such as kindergarten and other education services. These increases affect younger households more. Since there is no accepted way to establish the true extent of economies of scale in a given country, the question can't be answered exactly. But clearly a small departure from a per capita measure may be enough in some cases to overturn the conventional relative ranking of poverty headcounts: poverty among the elderly may then turn out to be worse than among children. This paper-a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to study changes in welfare and inequality during the transition. The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Download or read book Making Poor Nations Rich written by Benjamin Powell and published by Stanford Economics & Finance. This book was released on 2008 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making Poor Nations Rich illustrates the importance of institutions that support economic freedom and private property rights for promoting the form of productive entrepreneurship that leads to sustained increases in countries' standard of living.

Download or read book Poverty in Transition Economies written by Sandra Hutton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study addresses the experience of, and responses to poverty in a range of transition economies including Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Romania, Albania and Macedonia. It covers topics such as the definition of poverty lines and the measurement of poverty; the role of income-in-kind in supporting families; homelessness and destitution; housing; the design, targeting and administration of welfare; and personal responses to economic transition.

Download or read book Transition Economies written by Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary study offers a comprehensive analysis of the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Providing full historical context and drawing on a wide range of literature, this book explores the continuous economic and social transformation of the post-socialist world. While the future is yet to be determined, understanding the present phase of transformation is critical. The book’s core exploration evolves along three pivots of competitive economic structure, institutional change, and social welfare. The main elements include analysis of the emergence of the socialist economic model; its adaptations through the twentieth century; discussion of the 1990s market transition reforms; post-2008 crisis development; and the social and economic diversity in the region today. With an appreciation for country specifics, the book also considers the urgent problems of social policy, poverty, income inequality, and labor migration. Transition Economies will aid students, researchers and policy makers working on the problems of comparative economics, economic development, economic history, economic systems transition, international political economy, as well as specialists in post-Soviet and Central and Eastern European regional studies.

Download or read book Understanding Economic Development written by Colin White and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invaluable survey of the literature on growth. Colin White argues persuasively and expertly that any attempt to solve the profound mystery of economic growth at the large scales of world history must move beyond the limited vision of neo-classical economic theory, and incorporate the narrative methods and perspectives of history as well. This is a superb overview and critique of contemporary attempts to explain economic growth, and a perceptive re-examination of the whole issue of growth in human history. David Christian, Macquarie University, Australia Colin White transcends a number of false dichotomies in this work. He shows that we need both theory and history in order to comprehend the transition to modern economic growth. He appreciates that this transition was neither inevitable as many theorists argue nor entirely contingent as historical treatments often suggest. He argues that advice to present-day less developed countries should combine a general understanding of the process of transition with detailed analysis of the history and conditions of the country in question. He appreciates that it makes sense to speak of an Industrial Revolution while also recognizing that this was a gradual process that in turn built upon even more gradual changes in earlier centuries in the British economy. Less obviously but importantly he realizes that we can best understand economic growth if we recognize the limitations of each scholarly approach in order to integrate the best of these. Rick Szostak, University of Alberta, Canada This fascinating book considers one of the most important problems in economics: the inception of modern economic development. There is at present no satisfactory explanation of the inception of modern economic development; an excessive focus on either pure theory or on unique histories limits the explanatory power. This book realises the need to integrate the two approaches, moving beyond the proximate causes of economic theory to review the role in an analytic narrative of significant ultimate causes geography, risk environments, human capital, and institutions. Colin White distils the conclusions of a vast literature, drawing from economics, economic history and business and management, exploring economic theory, demonstrating limitations and highlighting alternative approaches. Particular attention is paid to the appropriate role of innovative entrepreneurs and of government, and three case studies illustrate how to build an analytic narrative. Showing how far we can generalise about the determinants of economic development and in particular how to understand the specific determinants in individual countries, this book will prove a stimulating and thought provoking read to academics, students and researchers with an interest in economics and economic development.

Download or read book Income Inequality and Poverty During the Transition from Planned to Market Economy written by Branko Milanovi? and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World Bank Technical Paper No. 394. Joint Forest Management (JFM) has emerged as an important intervention in the management of Indias forest resources. This report sets out an analytical method for examining the costs and benefits of JFM arrangements. Two pilot case studies in which the method was used demonstrate interesting outcomes regarding incentives for various groups to participate. The main objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of the incentives for communities to participate in JFM.

Download or read book The Economics of Poverty Traps written by Christopher B. Barrett and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What circumstances or behaviors turn poverty into a cycle that perpetuates across generations? The answer to this question carries especially important implications for the design and evaluation of policies and projects intended to reduce poverty. Yet a major challenge analysts and policymakers face in understanding poverty traps is the sheer number of mechanisms—not just financial, but also environmental, physical, and psychological—that may contribute to the persistence of poverty all over the world. The research in this volume explores the hypothesis that poverty is self-reinforcing because the equilibrium behaviors of the poor perpetuate low standards of living. Contributions explore the dynamic, complex processes by which households accumulate assets and increase their productivity and earnings potential, as well as the conditions under which some individuals, groups, and economies struggle to escape poverty. Investigating the full range of phenomena that combine to generate poverty traps—gleaned from behavioral, health, and resource economics as well as the sociology, psychology, and environmental literatures—chapters in this volume also present new evidence that highlights both the insights and the limits of a poverty trap lens. The framework introduced in this volume provides a robust platform for studying well-being dynamics in developing economies.

Download or read book Globalization and Poverty written by Ann Harrison and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 675 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day has been cut in half. How much of that improvement is because of—or in spite of—globalization? While anti-globalization activists mount loud critiques and the media report breathlessly on globalization’s perils and promises, economists have largely remained silent, in part because of an entrenched institutional divide between those who study poverty and those who study trade and finance. Globalization and Poverty bridges that gap, bringing together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments. Globalization and Poverty provides the more nuanced understanding necessary to move that debate beyond the slogans.

Download or read book Economic Transition in Guinea written by Jehan Arulpragasam and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: . The most detailed and informative study of the Guinean economy to date, Economic Transition in Guinea illustrates not only the successes of the nation's reform agenda, but also the fundamental constraints to development that often lie beyond the reach of such reform.

Download or read book Economic Development Poverty And Income Distribution written by William Loehr and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-10 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The increasing inequality and poverty that seem inevitably to accompany economic growth in developing countries have become more and more evident in recent years. The search for development paths that lead to growth with equality—all too difficult to find—is now an area of central concern for development economists. One result of their concern is this volume, in which internationally known representatives of a range of disciplines address themselves to ways in which growth with equity might be successfully achieved. The book begins with both empirical and theoretical background to the development issues involved, and with an overview of the experience of the international development assistance community. focuses on operational definitions of the poor that will permit analytical, policy-oriented research to lead to useful conclusions. Specific concern is expressed for small-business owners, women, peasants, and recent migrants from rural to urban areas. The basic question, of course, is what can be done about poverty and inequality. includes suggestions for specific measures and provides a comprehensive comparison across a wide range of policy options. The book does not solve the problem, but it does point to directions that promise a reasonably high probability of success. And throughout, suggestions are made for the kind of interdisciplinary research required to raise that probability even further.

Download or read book Poverty Food Consumption and Economic Development written by Maneka Jayasinghe and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-12 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the relationships between economies of scale in food consumption and a number of socio-economic and demographic characteristics of households and household behavioural choices since food is the major share of household expenditure for poor households. The characteristics considered comprise household size, location, income, and gender of the head of household while the behavioural choices considered comprise the decision to consume home-grown food and the decision to adopt domestic technology to aid food preparation and consumption. The book proposes two theoretical models to rationalize the role of the consumption of home-grown food and the adoption of domestic technology in enhancing economies of scale in food consumption. Econometric models are also used to empirically test the validity of the two theoretical models while adjusted poverty estimations are derived numerically using the estimated equivalence scales. Although data used in applying these techniques are based on four Household Income and Expenditure Surveys conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) in Sri Lanka, the methodology can be used for similar analysis in relation to any other country.

Download or read book From Poverty to Power written by Duncan Green and published by Oxfam. This book was released on 2008 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a look at the causes and effects of poverty and inequality, as well as the possible solutions. This title features research, human stories, statistics, and compelling arguments. It discusses about the world we live in and how we can make it a better place.

Download or read book The Paradox of Poverty written by Paul Steidlmeier and published by Ballinger Publishing Company. This book was released on 1987 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Affirming that North American economic development literature has generally overemphasised the variables of population, resources and technology in its analysis of poverty and hunger, this research attempts to be comprehensive by integrating the role of social power and participation, as well as that of culture.

Download or read book The Economic Transition in Myanmar After 1988 written by Kōichi Fujita and published by NUS Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many years Myanmar operated an inward-looking economic system built on import substitution. Ultimately this policy failed, leaving behind inefficient state economic enterprises and widespread poverty. Political unrest in 1988 led a newly installed military government to liberalize the economy, opening it to foreign investment and private participation in trade. This move towards a market economy was in line with world-wide trends, but political instability forced the country to follow a course different from neighboring countries. By analyzing economic policies and performance across the economic spectrum, this book presents an overall picture of economic development in Myanmar between 1988 and the early 2000s. The authors synthesize both macro and micro level data to overcome some of the limitations of unreliable national statistics, and show how the government attempted to deal with two key issues it faced. The first was how to reform the inefficient socialistic economic system in conformity with a market economy, and the second was how to develop the agricultural and underdeveloped economy to alleviate mass poverty.

Download or read book Business Solutions for the Global Poor written by V. Kashturi Rangan and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2007-02-03 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on research presented at The Harvard Business School’s first-ever conference on business approaches to poverty alleviation, Business Solutions for the Global Poor brings together perspectives from leading academics and corporate, non-profit and public sector managers. The contributors draw on practical and dynamic how-to insights from leading BOP ventures from more than twenty countries world-wide. This important volume reflects poverty’s multi-faceted nature and a broad range of actors—multinational and local businesses, entrepreneurs, civil society organizations and governments—that play a role in its alleviation.

Download or read book Growth Inequality and Poverty Prospects for Pro poor Economic Development written by Anthony Shorrocks and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2004-03-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty lies at the heart of development economics. This volume draws together many of the most important recent contributions to the controversies surrounding this topic.Some of the chapters help explain why there is profound disagreement on crucial issues of growth, poverty and inequality within academic circles, and among organizations and various groups active in the development field. Another central theme is the cross-country evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty, and the extent to which it is valid to draw policy conclusions from this empirical evidence. The volume also shows how new microeconomic techniques such as poverty maps andmicrosimulation models can be used to improve poverty analysis and the design of pro-poor policies.The overall conclusion points to the need for diverse strategies towards growth and poverty, rather than simple blanket policy rules. Initial conditions, specific country structures, and time horizons all play a significant role. Initial conditions affect the speed with which growth reduces poverty and can also determine whether policies such as trade liberalization have a pro-poor or an anti-poor outcome. Improved education is valuable in itself, and also contributes to poverty reduction; butits effect on inequality depends on supply and demand factors, which differ significantly across countries. Likewise, the quantitative impact on poverty of redistribution from the rich to the poor vis-à-vis an increase in total national income can vary greatly across countries. Hence the need forcreative approaches to poverty which take full account of the specific circumstances of individual nations and which assign a central role to inequality analysis in the discussion of poverty-alleviation policies.

Download or read book Gambling on Development written by Stefan Dercon and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2023-04-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last thirty years, the developing world has undergone tremendous changes. Overall, poverty has fallen, people live longer and healthier lives, and economies have been transformed. And yet many countries have simply missed the boat. Why have some countries prospered, while others have failed? Stefan Dercon argues that the answer lies not in a specific set of policies, but rather in a key development bargain, whereby a country's elites shift from protecting their own positions to gambling on a growth-based future. Despite the imperfections of such bargains, China is among the most striking recent success stories, along with Indonesia and more unlikely places, such as Bangladesh, Ghana and Ethiopia. Gambling on Development is about these winning efforts, in contrast to countries stuck in elite bargains leading nowhere. Building on three decades' experience across forty-odd countries, Dercon winds his narrative through Ebola in Sierra Leone, scandals in Malawi, beer factories in the DRC, mobile phone licences in Mozambique, and relief programs behind enemy lines in South Sudan. Weaving together conversations with prime ministers, civil servants and ordinary people, this is a probing look at how development has been achieved across the world, and how to assist such successes.