Search results for "poverty index"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
The paradox of endogenous poverty line in the poverty indices
2007
february 23-25, 2007; When measuring poverty, the poverty line is considered to be relatively determined as a percentage of the median income or as a percentage of the average income so as to allow international comparisons. The poverty line relative to the median income may be described as endogenous in contrast with the poverty line relative to the average income which may be described as exogenous because it is independent of the normalized distribution of incomes. As the existing literature is focused on the properties of the indices but not on the respective interest of the endogenous and exogenous poverty lines, this paper compares the two definitions of the relative poverty. The Rela…
How Much Should we Care about Consecutive Spells of Poverty? Proposal of a New Index
2009
Is cross-sectional poverty a reflection of real economic and social disadvantage? Does total number of years spent in poverty provide sufficient information about poverty severity? Recent studies show that in some countries there are good reasons to believe that it is not (see, among others, Mendola et al., 2009). Traditional measures of poverty persistence, such as ‘poverty rate’ (i.e. the number of years spent in poverty upon total number of observations) or the ‘persistent-risk-ofpoverty rate’, do not devote enough attention to the sequence of poverty spells. In particular they are not good enough in underlining different effects associated to occasional single spells of poverty and cons…
Understanding youth chronic poverty in South of Europe
2010
This paper investigates chronic poverty among the youth in Southern Europe, which is characterized by very high levels of persistent poverty, and welfare systems which are unable to smooth disparities. The main aim is to investigate on how longitudinal poverty differs in socio-demographic and economic characteristics among the Mediterranean youth. The intensity of poverty over time is measured by a new longitudinal poverty index based on the rationale of cumulative hardship. We tested the effects of many covariates on the incidence and intensity of chronic poverty, controlling for main socio-demographic and economic characteristics, using a ZINB model. The peculiar mix between the lack of e…
Chronic Poverty in European Mediterranean Countries
2013
This chapter investigates the characteristics of chronic poverty among youth in Southern European countries. These countries have the highest levels of poverty in Europe and welfare systems unable to smooth social inequalities effectively. The main aim of this chapter is to investigate on how long-lasting poor among the Mediterranean youth differs in socio-demographic and economic characteristics. The intensity of poverty over time is measured by a very recent longitudinal poverty index based on the rationale of cumulative hardship. We tested the effects of many covariates on the incidence and intensity of chronic poverty, controlling for main socio-demographic and economic characteristics,…
The importance of consecutive spells of poverty: a path-dependent index of longitudinal poverty
2011
In this paper we propose a new index of individual poverty in the longitudinal perspective, taking into account the way poverty and non-poverty spells follow one another along individual life courses. The Poverty Persistence Index (PPI) is based on all the pairwise distances between the waves of poverty. The PPI is normalized and it assigns a higher degree of (longitudinal) poverty to people who experience poverty in consecutive, rather than separated, periods, for whom the distances from the poverty line are larger along time and moreover, when the worst years are consecutive and/or recent. We also propose an aggregate index of persistence in poverty (APPI) in order to measure the distribu…