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 Poverty in Transition written by United Nations Development Programme. Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transition has already led to success in many countries. Nations such as Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Estonia, have numerous achievements to their credit. Further, countries such as Uzbekistan were able to effectively protect many citizens from acute socio-economic distress. A wealth of natural resources in countries such as the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan promises the potential for prosperity. At the same time, the process of transition has been painful for millions of citizens. There has been an unprecedented increase in poverty and mortality in countries, some of which have become, ironically, the most unequal in the world. Further, the countries of the former Soviet Union have suffered sharper reversals than any other region of the world in three indicators of socio-economic distress - mortality, income, and inflation. This report not only documents these adverse developments but also outlines the measures required to address poverty.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty written by Philip N. Jefferson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook examines poverty measurement, anti-poverty policy and programs, and poverty theory from the perspective of economics. It is written in a highly accessible style that encourages critical thinking about poverty. What's known about the sources of poverty and its alleviation are summarized and conventional thinking about poverty is challenged.

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 Transition Work for Everyone written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation This book brings together the latest findings on the nature and evolution of poverty and inequality in the region.

Download or read book Poverty in Transition and Transition in Poverty written by Yogesh Atal and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1999-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poverty is an issue facing countries around the globe, yet it is a multi-dimensional phenomenon caused by a variety of factors, differing from context with no linear chain of cause and effect. The occurrence and persistence of poverty is influenced by an interrelated web of economic, social, psychological, cultural, and political factors. Focusing on countries-in-transition belonging to the former Soviet bloc where the existence of poverty was officially denied until the collapse of the Soviet Union, this volume examines the ways in which each country is dealing with its newly acknowledged and rapidly increasing poverty. The transition from socialism to democracy and market economies has proved more difficult and costly than anyone imagined. Scholars from the six countries examined here profile and evaluate current social policies and programs on poverty eradication and provide a comparative perspective that ensures that culturally specific solutions can be found in place of borrowed solutions from abroad - solutions which have thus far ignored the cultural factor and have thus failed to deliver.

Download or read book poverty inequality and social policy in transition economies written by Branko Milanovic and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1995 What happens to poverty and income inequality during the early period of transition to a market economy? Poverty is on the rise, and income inequality widens. Better targeting of social assistance and pension reform are the necessary policy reforms. In examining what happens to poverty and income inequality during the early period of transition to a market economy, Milanovic covers the period up to 1993. His analysis includes almost all transition economies that were not affected by wars, blockades, or embargoes. (In economies so affected, the intrinsic issues of transition are overshadowed by more basic issues of war or quasi-war economy and survival.) The two key issues of social policy in transition economies are pension reform and better targeting of social assistance. Pensions represent 70 to 80 percent of cash social expenditures. No reduction of current levels of social spending (which is unsustainable) can be envisaged without pension reform. Better targeting of social assistance is needed because many universally or enterprise-provided benefits have been terminated, poverty has increased, and social programs lack funding. If poverty is on the rise and money is scarce, better targeting is the only option. This paper -- a product of the Transition Economics Division, Policy Research Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to study social effects of transition.

Download or read book Transitions in and Out of Poverty written by Patricia Ruggles and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Poverty in Transition and Transition in Poverty written by Yogesh Atal and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Poverty and the Economic Transition written by Peter F. Lanjouw and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

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 Land in Transition written by Martin Ravallion and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008-04-07 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a case study of Vietnam's efforts to fight poverty using market-oriented land reforms. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country undertook major institutional reforms, and an impressive reduction in poverty followed. But what role did the reforms play? Did the efficiency gains from reform come at a cost to equity? Were there both winners and losers? Was rising rural landlessness in the wake of reforms a sign of success or failure? 'Land in Transition' investigates the impacts on living standards of the two stages of land law reform: in 1988, when land was allocated to households administratively and output markets were liberalized; and in 1993, when official land titles were introduced and land transactions were permitted for the first time since communist rule began. To fully assess the poverty impacts of these changes, the authors' analysis of household surveys is guided by both economic theory and knowledge of the historical and social contexts. The book delineates lessons from Vietnam's experience and their implications for current policy debates in China and elsewhere.

Download or read book Poverty Income Distribution and Well Being in Asia During the Transition written by Lu Aiguo and published by Springer. This book was released on 2002-05-22 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Asian road to the market has generally been seen as a model of success and the object of widespread admiration. This volume evaluates the actual experience and debunks some of the most widespread myths. It does so by identifying the link between alternative transition models, public policies and household responses on the one hand, and key welfare changes on the other. Even in countries experiencing sustained growth, there have been unmistakable signs of deep social strain.

Download or read book Transition Events in the Dynamics of Poverty written by Signe-Mary McKernan and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poverty rate has fallen from over 15 percent in 1993 -- one of its highest levels in three decades, to 11.3 percent in 2000 -- its lowest level in two decades. What events triggered entries into and exits from poverty during the last three decades? What role do events such as changes in household composition, employment status, and disability status play in individuals' entries into and exits from poverty? Understanding why individuals enter and exit poverty may be useful for effective policy, yet little is known about the events associated with poverty. Several researchers have examined the relationship between events and poverty transitions, where these "trigger events" include changes in household composition, employment status, and disability status. Surprisingly, most studies use only descriptive analyses. While informative, descriptive analyses provide limited information because individuals can experience more than one event at a time, thereby making it impossible to disentangle the relationship between one event and a poverty transition from that of other events or demographic characteristics. This study adds to our understanding of the role events play in individuals' entries into and exits from poverty by using a multivariate framework, which disentangles the relationship between different events and poverty transitions. This study sheds light on three questions that remain largely unanswered in the poverty literature: What are the dynamics behind changes in the poverty rate over time? What events increase individuals' likelihood of entering and exiting poverty? What is the likelihood of entering and exiting poverty given these different events? We answer the questions posed above using two longitudinal data sets. We use yearly data from the 1975-1997 panels of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) as well as monthly data from the 1988, 1990, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Using both the PSID and SIPP allows us to examine: (1) poverty dynamics measured with monthly (SIPP) and yearly (PSID) reporting periods; (2) events over two decades (PSID) and since the 1996 federal welfare reform (SIPP); and (3) the extent to which the results differ across the two data sets. We examine poverty dynamics over time and measure transitions into and out of poverty using the official definition of poverty. While we recognize several shortcomings associated with the official poverty measure, it is the most commonly used measure of poverty in transitions research and offers an easily implemented, straightforward method for measuring the economic status of individuals. In brief, we find that poverty entries and exits have changed over the past two decades, with the mid 1990s seeing an increase in both entries into poverty and exits from poverty. Descriptive analyses of poverty entries and exits show that shifts in household structure (i.e., transitions from a two-adult to a female-headed household and vice versa) are relatively rare events in the population, but individuals who experience these events are the most likely to transition into or out of poverty. While individuals who experience employment shifts are somewhat less likely to experience a poverty transition (than those with a household structure shift), shifts in employment are more common events in the population at large, and so are associated with a larger share of transitions into and out of poverty. Controlling for demographic and economic factors in the multivariate analyses, we find the likelihood of entering or exiting poverty to be highest for persons living in households with employment changes, followed by persons living in households with a shift in headship. These findings are discussed further in the executive summary, and expanded on in the full report.

Download or read book Rethinking and Unthinking Development written by Busani Mpofu and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Development has remained elusive in Africa. Through theoretical contributions and case studies focusing on Southern Africa’s former white settler states, South Africa and Zimbabwe, this volume responds to the current need to rethink (and unthink) development in the region. The authors explore how Africa can adapt Western development models suited to its political, economic, social and cultural circumstances, while rejecting development practices and discourses based on exploitative capitalist and colonial tendencies. Beyond the legacies of colonialism, the volume also explores other factors impacting development, including regional politics, corruption, poor policies on empowerment and indigenization, and socio-economic and cultural barriers.

Download or read book Poverty and Social Assistance in Transition Countries written by J. Braithwaite and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-10 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Declining incomes and growing income inequality have led to a rise in poverty in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This study examines poverty and social assistance in six countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Russia, and the Kyrgyz Republic - comparing the poverty profiles and the correlates of poverty between the two regions. The study finds that the profile of poverty is more sharply defined in Eastern Europe than in the former Soviet Union, where poverty is more widespread. This holds the potential for better targeting of social assistance in Eastern Europe, and the study proposes a novel two-step approach to identify the poor.

Download or read book Poverty Inequality and Social Policy in Transition Economies written by Branko Milanovic and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens to poverty and income inequality during the early period of transition to a market economy? Poverty is on the rise, and income inequality widens. Better targeting of social assistance and pension reform are the necessary policy reforms. In examining what happens to poverty and income inequality during the early period of transition to a market economy, Milanovic covers the period up to 1993. His analysis includes almost all transition economies that were not affected by wars, blockades, or embargoes. (In economies so affected, the intrinsic issues of transition are overshadowed by more basic issues of war or quasi-war economy and survival.)The two key issues of social policy in transition economies are pension reform and better targeting of social assistance. Pensions represent 70 to 80 percent of cash social expenditures. No reduction of current levels of social spending (which is unsustainable) can be envisaged without pension reform. Better targeting of social assistance is needed because many universally or enterprise-provided benefits have been terminated, poverty has increased, and social programs lack funding. If poverty is on the rise and money is scarce, better targeting is the only option.This paper - a product of the Transition Economics Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to study social effects of transition.