Other Poverty Study
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Publication
Macro Poverty Outlook for Brazil: October 2021
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-10)After contracting 4.1 percent in 2020, economic activity in Brazil increased substantially in 2021. Vaccination has accelerated, and the adult population is likely to be covered in late 2021. A sluggish labor market rebound, coupled with high unemployment and low participation rates will likely increase poverty in 2021. Raising fiscal concerns contribute to increasing long-term yields, while the tightening of monetary policy to contain the rampant inflation may undermine growth in 2022. -
Publication
The Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 on Households in Cambodia, Report No. 4: Results from the High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households Round 4 (17 December 2020-12 January 2021)
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03)The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its effects on households create an urgent need for timely data and evidence to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis on the Cambodian people, especially the poor and most vulnerable. To monitor the evolving socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and inform policy responses and interventions, the World Bank designed and conducted a nationally representative High-Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) of households in Cambodia. The survey covers important and relevant topics, including knowledge of COVID-19 and adoption of preventative behaviors, economic activity and income sources, access to basic goods and services, exposure to shocks and coping mechanisms, and access to social assistance. The survey will track the same households 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 COVID-19 pandemic in near-real time. This brief summarizes the findings of Round 4 (R4) of the HFPS. The information presented is based on a sample of 1,687 households, of which 410 were drawn from the nationally representative Living Standards Measurement Study Plus (LSMS+) survey and 1,277 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. To trace the evolution of key indicators, the results of Round 4 (R4) implemented in December 2020–January 2021 are compared against results of Round 3 (R3) implemented October–November 2020, Round 2 (R2) implemented August–September 2020, and Round 1 (R1) implemented May–June 2020. -
Publication
Monitoring COVID-19 Impact on Households in Zimbabwe, Report No. 1: Results from a High-Frequency Telephone Survey of Households
(World Bank, Harare, 2020-11-19)The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic created an urgent need for timely information to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis. This information is essential to inform policy measures for protecting the welfare of Zimbabweans. Responding to this need, the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT), together with the World Bank and UNICEF, designed a high-frequency telephone survey of households to measure the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe. The survey builds on the Poverty, Income, Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (PICES) of 2017 and 2019 and uses a sample of 1747 households from all ten provinces of Zimbabwe. The sample is representative for urban as well as rural areas. This survey is referred to as the Rapid PICES Monitoring Telephone Survey and is funded by the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund (ZIMREF), and implemented by ZIMSTAT with technical support from the World Bank and UNICEF. This brief report summarizes the results of the first round of the Rapid PICES, conducted between 6th and 24th July, 2020. The telephone interview lasted for 25 minutes on average and covered topics such as knowledge of COVID and mitigation measures, access to and participation in educational activities during school closures, access to basic necessities, employment dynamics, income losses, food security and assistance received. The plan is to repeat the interviews every 4-6 weeks. Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) was used for data collection. -
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
Monitoring COVID-19 Impacts on Households in Ethiopia: Results from a High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-04)The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic and social effects on households have created an urgent need for timely data to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis and protect the welfare of the least well-off in Ethiopian society. To monitor how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Ethiopia’s economy and people and to inform interventions and policy responses, the World Bank designed and conducted its High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households (HFPS-HH). -
Publication
Living Conditions and Settlement Decisions of Recent Afghan Returnees: Findings from a 2018 Phone Survey of Afghan Returnees and UNHCR Data
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)This report is the result of a collaboration between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank Group (WBG). Repatriation or the return of refugees to their country of origin has been rarely studied, and data on their socio-economic outcomes is sparsely available. In such a context, the World Bank and UNHCR teams attempted to make good use of the existing data sources and complemented it with new data collection methods to better understand the patterns and characteristics of recent Afghan refugee returns. More specifically, the team attempted to analytically connect insights between different data sources to explore (albeit imperfectly) questions of selection among Afghans who remained in Pakistan and those documented returnees who returned to Afghanistan. -
Publication
Afghanistan’s Displaced People: A Socio-Economic Profile, 2013-2014
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-08-03)Afghans represent the world’s largest protracted refugee population, and one of the largest populations to be repatriated to their country of origin in this century. Between 2002 and 2016, over six million refugees returned to Afghanistan from neighboring countries. In 2016 alone, returnees numbered more than a million. In an already difficult context, large-scale internal displacement and return from outside have strained the delivery of public services in Afghanistan and increased competition for scarce economic opportunities, not only for the displaced, but for the population at large. This note aims at contributing to our understanding of displacement in Afghanistan by comparing the socioeconomic profiles of three populations: (i) former refugees who returned to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014 (“pre-2015 returnees”); (ii) internally displaced persons (“IDPs”); and (iii) non-displaced persons (“hosts”). The note captures and compares these groups’ situations at a specific time-point, using data from the 2013-14 Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey (ALCS). Importantly, the results document socioeconomic conditions just prior to the transfer of security responsibilities from international troops to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in 2014, which was associated with a subsequent decline in aid, both security and civilian, and a sharp drop in economic activity. The results presented here cover the largest return of Afghans to the county following the fall of the Taliban in 2002, but precede the more recent large-scale return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan in 2016-17. Future publications will extend the findings summarized here with analysis of new and existing data covering this recent influx. This research is part of an ongoing effort to document population displacement challenges and solutions in Afghanistan over time. Data from ALCS 2013-14 establish baseline socio-economic profiles for returned refugees, IDPs, and non-displaced hosts. Further research and analysis now in progress will document how these conditions have changed since 2013-14, and will distill evidence for policy to improve socio-economic outcomes among Afghanistan’s displaced and non-displaced people. -
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.