Publication: Poverty and Ethnicity : A Cross-Country Study of ROMA Poverty in Central Europe
Date
2002-11
ISSN
Published
2002-11
Author(s)
Abstract
ROMA are the main poverty risk groups in
many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
However, information on their living conditions, and the
characteristics of their poverty is scarce, fragmented, and
often anecdotal. This paper analyzes data from a new
cross-country household survey, conducted by the Center for
Comparative Research, at Yale University. The survey is the
first of its kind which addresses the ethnic dimension of
poverty across countries, covering Roma in Hungary,
Bulgaria, and Romania. The paper finds that welfare among
Roma households is significantly lower than that of
non-Roma, in terms of both material deprivation (consumption
and income), and other measures of deprivation, including
housing status, education levels, and employment
opportunities. Multivariate analysis confirm that,
controlling for other household characteristics, there is a
strong negative association between Roma ethnicity, and
welfare. A large part of this association appears to be due
to differences in endowments, and opportunities, but there
is also an important component that is
"structural". This component may reflect the
influence of past, and present discrimination, exclusion,
and cultural factors which may affect access to public
services, e.g., through language barriers.
Citation
“Revenga, Ana; Ringold, Dena; Tracy, William Martin. 2002. Poverty and Ethnicity : A Cross-Country Study of ROMA Poverty in Central Europe. World Bank Technical Paper;No. 531. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/292d9f37-49d4-507e-8928-d8cec4d9ece1 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”