Other Poverty Study
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Publication
The Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 on Households in Cambodia, Report No. 2: Results from the High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households, Round 2
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11)This brief summarizes the findings of round 2 (R2) of the high-frequency phone survey (HFPS) of households. The information presented is based on a sample of 1,667 households, of which 612 were drawn from the nationally representative living standard measurement study plus (LSMS+) and 1,055 from the list of beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program for pregnant women and children under 2 with an IDPoor equity card (IDPoor sample). IDPoor is Cambodia’s national poverty identification program and official targeting mechanism for programs that support the poor. Unless otherwise noted, the results presented are primarily drawn from the LSMS sample. The results of R2 implemented August to September 2020 are compared against results of round 1 (R1) implemented May to June 2020 to trace the evolution of key indicators. The same households will be tracked over 10 months, with selected respondents - typically the household head - completing interviews every 8 weeks. Monitoring the well-being of households over time will improve understanding of the effects of, and household responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in near-real time. -
Publication
The Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 on Households in Cambodia, Report No. 1: Results from the High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households, Round 1
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11)This brief summarizes the findings of the first round of a nationally representative high-frequency phone survey (HFPS) of households. The HFPS sample is drawn from the nationally representative living standard measurement study plus (LSMS+) implemented October to December 2019 by the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) with technical and financial support from the World Bank. The HFPS followed up with 1,364 households in LSMS+ with a phone number. The phone survey was successfully completed for 700 households for a response rate of 51 percent. Sampling weights were adjusted to ensure that the sample remains representative at the national and subnational level (urban and rural areas). The same households will be tracked over 10 months, with selected respondents - typically the household head - completing interviews every 8 weeks. Monitoring the well-being of households over time will improve understanding of the effects of, and household responses to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in near-real time. -
Publication
Mauritius Addressing Inequality through More Equitable Labor Markets
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-26)Mauritius is often cited as one of the few African success stories, and with good reason. In the aftermath of independence (1968), this small island nation in the Indian Ocean seemed to be bound for economic failure because of its high poverty rate and numerous vulnerabilities, including high population growth, ethnic tensions, substantial unemployment, and an economy greatly dependent on the production of sugar for international markets. However, Mauritius was successful in diversifying the economy and accomplishing an unprecedented structural transformation.The Inclusiveness of Growth and Shared Prosperity report (World Bank 2015a) turned the spotlight on the expanding gap of inequality in household incomes that occurred between 2007 and 2012 and on the negative impact on poverty. The report estimates that the incidence of absolute poverty between 2007 and 2012 would have declined twice as quickly had growth been shared more widely and inequality not worsened. Building on these earlier findings, this study investigates the driving forces behind the growing income inequality and identifies policy levers that could mitigate and, in the long run, possibly reverse the upward trend.This study takes a comprehensive approach to the determinants of inequality by including the role of the choices of households and individuals, markets, and institutions. The report is structured as follows. Chapter one sets the stage by presenting stylized facts on the trends in household income inequality between 2001 and 2015, comparing these trends with trends in consumption inequality, and identifying the main culprit behind the rapidly rising inequality in household incomes, that is, household labor income. Chapter two supplies a set of descriptive trends of the two groups of factors, namely, household demographics and labor market forces, that contribute to changes in household laborincome and follows up with a decomposition exercise on changes in household labor income between 2001 and 2015.Because the analysis indicates that an unequal increase in female labor force participation and rising inequality in individual earnings are among the main contributors to the expanding inequality in household labor income, Chapter three takes a deep dive into the issue of gender inequality in the labor market. The chapter illustrates the gender gap in labor market participation, describes the differences in the activities of working women in the labor market relative to men, and concludes with a detailed analysis of gender gaps in wages separately in the public and private sectors. Chapter four resumes the main analysis of the drivers of increasing inequality in individual earnings. The chapter first presents stylized facts about overall inequality in wages and then separates out changes in inequality between and within groups defined by demographic characteristics. The chapter distinguishes the role of changes in prices (or wages) and the role of changes in the composition of the workforce in rising earnings inequality. The second part of the chapter is devoted to the analysis of the role of the main potential drivers of expanding earnings inequality. The possible candidates include the interaction of changes in labor supply and labor demand, giving rise to skills shortages or surpluses, and changes in labor market institutions, namely, remuneration orders (ROs). The chapter concludes with an analysis of an additional source of skills mismatches among the employed population, namely, education mismatches, and advances potential explanations for the coexistence of a substantial skills shortage, over education, particularly among youth, and a large share of highly educated youth among the unemployed. -
Publication
Urban Poverty in Ulannabaatar: Understanding the Dimensions and Addressing the Challenges
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-08-10)Mongolia’s economic growth from 2010 has been unprecedented with GDP peaking at 17.5 percent in 2012 when Mongolia was the fastest growing economy globally. This unparalleled growth of the economy was accompanied by an equally impressive decline in poverty by 17 percentage points between 2010 to 2014. However, much of this decline was during 2010-2012. From 2012-2014 poverty declined by less than 6 percentage points, partly due to slowing growth and declining foreign direct investment. World Bank (2016) estimates raise concerns that poverty reduction is likely to come to a standstill due to the negative welfare impact of the economic slowdown in 2015, which is expected to continue through 2016. During 2015-16, urban poverty was projected to increase, and World Bank estimates suggest that approximately 6.5 percent of the urban population may have already fallen below the poverty line. The risks of an impending stall in poverty reduction are particularly strong in urban areas that are home to almost two-thirds of Mongolia’s population and account for 55.6 percent of the poor. Given the trends of rapid urbanization and growing centrality of cities in Mongolia, this report delves deep to examine multiple dimensions of urban poverty and how social groups might differ in their experiences of urban poverty. The objective of this report is: to carry out an in-depth analysis of the extent, nature and spatial distribution of poverty in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, which holds the largest proportion of urban population in the country and serves as the most important destination for rural-urban migrants,and to identify sources of vulnerability for poor and excluded populations using a variety of data sources that go beyond income metrics and highlight the deeply multidimensional nature of urban poverty in Ulaanbaatar. The report takes a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative, qualitative and spatial analyses. Availability of rich spatial data and the use of spatial techniques are used to create a better understanding of the locational distribution of urban poor and the nature of poor places. -
Publication
Braving the Storm: Poverty and Inequality in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007-2011
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05)This note describes the trends in, and composition of, absolute poverty based on household expenditures, and is thus concerned, as a matter of policy objectives, with access of the population to a particular minimum standard of living. This should be viewed as complementary to the companion note on social exclusion based on Europe 2020 indicators including the relative at-risk-of-poverty (AROP) rate, focuses on low income in relation to other residents in a given country. In addition to the analysis of absolute poverty, the note also presents an analysis of inclusive growth, aimed at assessing whether income growth (losses) benefit (impact) differentially the lowest part (here, bottom forty percent) of the distribution. Other approaches, such as those including measures of poverty based on current income, or self-reported measures of affordability, or approached that differ in the way they set the poverty threshold exist. The choice of World Bank’s methodology for purposes of this report is primarily on pragmatic grounds: (i) it allows for the analysis of trends during 2007-2011; (ii) the same methodology was adopted in the previous report (World Bank 2009) to analyze poverty trends during 2004-2007, thus providing a longer trend; (iii) it allows for comparisons of trends across the entities of BiH. -
Publication
FYR of Macedonia: Measuring Welfare using the Survey of Income and Living Conditions
(Washington, DC, 2015-05)This note expands the analysis on poverty and income distribution reported by the FYR Macedonia SSO for 2010 and 2011. The present work is based on an analysis performed in-situ by World Bank staff on the offices of the FYR Macedonian SSO.