Other Poverty Study
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Publication
Background Study for the National Strategy on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, 2015-2020
(World Bank, Bucharest, 2015-10-15)The background study for the national strategy on social inclusion and poverty reduction 2015-2020 was produced under a RAS agreement with the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection, and Elderly of Romania. The report is a companion volume of the strategy, adopted by the Romanian Government in May 2015, and summarizes the diagnostics and analyses carried out by the World Bank team to provide a sound empirical base for the strategy. Given the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, the report includes diagnostics and policy recommendations on employment, social protection, education, health, housing, social participation, as well as regional and rural development policies. The document is based on a combination of desk research, qualitative data analysis, new data collected by the World Bank team and analyses of administrative, census, and survey data. This included qualitative research (for example, case-studies in two counties, interviews with representatives of central governmental bodies, interviews with recipients and eligible potential beneficiaries of means-tested benefits and with social workers), and quantitative data collection and analysis (a census on social housing stock; census of frontline social workers; a consolidated database of physicians, representatives of the pharmacies, community nurses, and health mediators; administrative dataset with social services for elderly, social services for people with disabilities and specialized child protection services; analysis of poverty. The book is organized in four parts. The first part starts with an analysis of the trends in poverty and social exclusion over the past few years and with a poverty forecast for the next five years (2015 to 2020). The second part analyzes the sectoral policies that must be implemented to tackle the problems identified in the first part of the volume. The third part turns its focus to area-based policies and discusses regional disparities, urban-rural differences, and specific problems in small towns and villages, rural, and urban marginalized areas, and Roma and non-Roma communities. The fourth part discusses the actions needed to strengthen the capacity of the public system to reduce poverty and increase social inclusion. -
Publication
Transitioning to Better Jobs in the Kyrgyz Republic: A jobs Diagnostic
(Washington, DC, 2015-09-18)This report takes an in-depth look at the development of jobs in the Kyrgyz Republic over the past decade to understand why the country has not realized better job outcomes. Drawing on evidence at the macro, household, and firm level, it examines key shortcomings in the current migration-led, remittance-driven development model that have weakened the country’s ability to create sufficient and high-quality employment opportunities and are likely to result in deteriorating job outcomes in the future. The report argues that several broad transformations will be needed to develop engines of growth in the Kyrgyz Republic outside remittances and shift to a better jobs path. The distortions and obstacles that currently prevent the expansion of private sector employment need to be unraveled; macroeconomic, regulatory, and logistical impediments to greater, more diversified export orientation need to be strategically addressed; the compensation of public employees must be reformed to reduce the level of corruption that discourages business growth; and the migration phenomenon, which will be a part of the employment mosaic for at least another decade, must be made to contribute to domestic employment creation and the country’s development. -
Publication
Kyrgyz Republic: Food Prices and Household Welfare
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05-28)Between 2008 and 2012 the urban/rural poverty divide substantially narrowed down, which was the result of relatively stable rural and rising urban poverty rates. Over the same period, food inflation spiked, whereby strong links between domestic and global price movements were observed owed to major import dependence on food. The high shares of consumption that households dedicate to food, especially among the poor, leave limited scope to deal with food price surges by economizing on non-food expenditure. Food price increases of 5, 10, and 15 percent are estimated to increase poverty rates between 2 and 5 percentage points in the baseline scenario. -
Publication
Kyrgyz Republic: Poverty Profile for 2013
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05-21)Over the last decade, the Kyrgyz Republic experienced volatile but positive economic growth. Since the early 2000s, the share of working age population has been growing robustly and foreign labor markets have been an important source of employment. The Kyrgyz Republic has achieved large reductions in poverty over the past decade, but in recent years progress has diminished. During 2003-2012, the Kyrgyz Republic saw significant convergence between urban and rural poverty rates. Poverty reduction during 2003-2013 was driven mostly by growth rather than redistribution. -
Publication
Labor Migration and Welfare in the Kyrgyz Republic (2008-2013)
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05-08)This paper examines the impact of labor migration from a welfare and social development perspective. Rather than focusing on regulatory and legal aspects determining migration, this note centers on the impacts of migration on the domestic welfare of households in the Kyrgyz Republic. The profiling of labor migration and identification of knowledge gaps are used to inform the development of strategies for more effective and sustainable welfare impacts from labor migration and remittances. -
Publication
Poverty and Shared Prosperity in Russia: Deconstructing Russia’s Shared Prosperity Success -- The Role of Labor and Non-Labor Income
(Washington, DC, 2015-05)The Russian Federation has sustained significant growth over the past decade, accompanied by high rates of income mobility for all groups in the population. The positive outcomes in economic growth were accompanied by economic mobility for most households, reflected in substantial poverty reduction. Inclusive growth has led to a positive performance of the country in terms of shared prosperity - measured by the income and consumption growth of the bottom 40 percent of the welfare distribution. Notwithstanding the positive performance observed, the recent trends suggest sustainability concerns. Alongside the inclusive economic growth, economic mobility has improved remarkably in the country as reflected by the growth of the middle class. Upward economic mobility in Russia appears to be the result of both increases in average income levels and changes in the distribution of income. Given the positive outcomes observed, the question is, to what extent is Russia’s favorable performance in terms of shared prosperity sustainable? To this end, this note explores the main drivers behind the progress to date. The evolutions of the labor market, on one hand, and the incidence of the fiscal system, on the other, appear as the two main factors driving the observed poverty reduction, increase in the income of the bottom 40, and growth of the middle class in Russia. The note is structured as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two presents an analysis of labor income, including an overview of market dynamics and the reduction of wage inequality in the country. Section three presents a summary of the lessons derived from the analysis that can inform policy dialogue and contribute to ensuring the sustainability of the progress achieved in shared prosperity going forward. -
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. -
Publication
An Update on Poverty and Inequality in Albania: Nine Stylized Facts
(Washington, DC, 2015-05)This note presents 9 stylized facts that emerge related to the evolution of poverty and inequality over the 2002 to 2012 period, especially from 2008 to 2012, as well as some insights into the drivers of poverty changes. It complements existing work on monitoring and understanding shared prosperity – the second corporate goal of the World Bank along with reducing poverty - in Albania and the Western Balkans. Albania poverty estimates are based on the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS). The LSMS is conducted by the Albania Statistics Office (INSTAT) with donor funding and has been carried out in 2002, 2005, 2008 and recently in 2012. -
Publication
Insights into Key Challenges of the Albanian Labor Market
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05)This note presents an overview of the Albanian labor market, and initial insights into the challenges for inclusive and better quality jobs. The note does not intend to be comprehensive, but rather aims at compiling – under an integrative jobs umbrella and the regional framework on jobs – some of the available data and evidence on the Albanian jobs challenge, part of which was prepared for the Albania Systematic Country Diagnostic of the World Bank. By employing the regional report’s framework, the note can guide the Government, development partners, civil society and other stakeholders in identifying the many knowledge gaps that remain for a comprehensive jobs agenda and the work needed towards completing the picture.