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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Longer-Run Effects Of Antipoverty Policies On Disadvantaged Neighborhoods, David Neumark, Brian J. Asquith, Brittany Bass May 2019

Longer-Run Effects Of Antipoverty Policies On Disadvantaged Neighborhoods, David Neumark, Brian J. Asquith, Brittany Bass

Brian Asquith

We estimate the longer-run effects of minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and welfare on key economic indicators of economic self-sufficiency in disadvantaged neighborhoods. We find that the longer-run effects of the EITC are to increase employment and to reduce poverty and public assistance. We also find some evidence that higher welfare benefits had longer-run adverse effects, and quite robust evidence that tighter welfare time limits reduce poverty and public assistance in the longer run. The evidence on the long-run effects of the minimum wage on poverty and public assistance is not robust, with some evidence pointing to reductions …


Self-Employment And Poverty In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields Jul 2016

Self-Employment And Poverty In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

A key way for the world’s poor—nearly half of humanity—to escape poverty is to earn more for their labor. Most of the world’s poor people are self-employed, but because there are few opportunities in most developing countries for them to earn enough to escape poverty, they are working hard but working poor. Two key policy planks in the fight against poverty should be: raising the returns to self-employment and creating more opportunities to move from self-employment into higher paying wage employment.


Challenges And Policy Lessons For The Growth-Employment-Poverty Nexus In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields Jul 2016

Challenges And Policy Lessons For The Growth-Employment-Poverty Nexus In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Productivity growth and structural change are generally considered to be important determinants of economic growth. However recent research revealed that they do not necessarily lead to higher growth and employment rates. Recent studies, drawing on data from developing countries, showed that only the “right” kind of productivity growth resulted in higher employment rates. Enterprises in Africa and Latin America caught up in matters of technology; however, this process resulted in a substitution of employment by technology. The same is true for structural change; only the “right” kind of structural change caused more growth and employment. Whereas in Asia, labour shifted …


Aid, Growth And Jobs, Gary S. Fields Jul 2016

Aid, Growth And Jobs, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Various development objectives are worthy, but one objective merits special attention: reducing the scourge of absolute economic misery in the world. This study focuses on an important but relatively underemphasized approach to poverty reduction: helping the poor earn more in the labour market for the work they do, so that they can buy the goods and services they need to move up out of poverty. The core of the study is divided into three sections: defining the global poverty challenge and the world’s employment problem, presenting policy options for improving employment outcomes for the poor, and suggesting ways of choosing …


The Effect Of The U.S. Biofuels Mandate On Poverty In India, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Marie-Helene Hubert, Beyza Ural Marchand Jan 2016

The Effect Of The U.S. Biofuels Mandate On Poverty In India, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Marie-Helene Hubert, Beyza Ural Marchand

Ujjayant Chakravorty

More than 40% of US grain is now used for energy and this share is expected to rise under the current Renewable Fuels Mandate (RFS). There are no studies of the global distributional consequences of this purely domestic policy. Using micro-level survey data, we trace the effect of the RFS on world food prices and their impact on household level consumption and wage impacts in India. We first develop a partial equilibrium model to estimate the effect of the RFS on the price of selected food commodities - rice, wheat, corn, sugar and meat and dairy, which together provide almost …


Behavioral Economics And Poverty [En Español] Behavioral Economics Y Pobreza, Daniel A. Monroy Oct 2015

Behavioral Economics And Poverty [En Español] Behavioral Economics Y Pobreza, Daniel A. Monroy

Daniel A Monroy C

No abstract provided.


Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

In the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China), the entire working population has benefited from labor market institutions. The East Asian NIEs attained and maintained generally full employment, improved their job mixes, raised real earnings, and lowered their rates of poverty. This article reaches two principal conclusions. First, labor market conditions continued to improve in all four economies in the 1980s at rates remarkably similar to their rates of aggregate economic growth. Second, labor market repression was not a major factor in the growth experiences of these economies in the 1980s. …


The Dynamics Of Poverty, Inequality And Economic Well-Being: African Economic Growth In Comparative Perspective, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

The Dynamics Of Poverty, Inequality And Economic Well-Being: African Economic Growth In Comparative Perspective, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Two hundred and fifty million Africans (about 45% of the population) are poor. In rural areas, where most Africans live, there is, alas, a 'poor majority'. Rural poverty rates range from 37% in Madagascar and 41% in Kenya to 88% in Zambia and 94% in Ghana (Table 1). It is hard to imagine an issue in development economics that is of greater importance to humankind than the effects of economic growth on poverty and economic well-being. Yet there is remarkably little consensus on this vitally important issue, as illustrated by the following two polar positions: New patterns of growth will …


Changes In Poverty And Inequality In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

Changes In Poverty And Inequality In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper presents new data on poverty, inequality, and growth in those developing countries of the world for which the requisite statistics are available. Economic growth is found generally but not always to reduce poverty. Growth, however, is found to have very little to do with income inequality. Thus the "economic laws" linking the rate of growth and the distribution of benefits receive only very tenuous empirical support here.


Income Distribution In Developing Economies: Conceptual, Data, And Policy Issues In Broad-Based Growth, Gary S. Fields Sep 2015

Income Distribution In Developing Economies: Conceptual, Data, And Policy Issues In Broad-Based Growth, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The aim of economic development is to raise the standard of living of a country's people, especially its poor. Economic growth, particularly when broadly based, is a means to that end. 'Underdevelopment' can be defined as a state of severely constrained choices. When one is choosing from among an undesirable set of alternatives, the outcome will itself be undesirable. Standards of living will be low. If standards of living are to be improved, people must have a better set of alternatives from which to choose. 'Economic development' is the process by which the constraints on choices are relaxed. Based …


Integration Of Waqf And Islamic Microfiance For Poverty Reduction, Mohamed Aslam Haneef Prof., Ataul Huq Pramanik Prof., Mustafa Omar Mohamme Dr., Aliyu Dahiru Dr. Feb 2015

Integration Of Waqf And Islamic Microfiance For Poverty Reduction, Mohamed Aslam Haneef Prof., Ataul Huq Pramanik Prof., Mustafa Omar Mohamme Dr., Aliyu Dahiru Dr.

Aliyu Dahiru

This report presents the output of two-year collaboration between SESRIC and the Centre for Islamic Economics of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) on a research project that covered three OIC countries namely, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The research project aimed at developing an integrated Waqf-based Islamic microfinance model to optimize the use of combined resources of Waqf and Islamic microfinance institutions in OIC countries with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of IMF and Waqf institutions in addressing the socio-economic needs of the society, particularly through effective poverty alleviation programs. The report consists of four main sections. The first …


Economic Development Recommendations That Focus On The "Working Poor": Lessons From Waco, George Erickcek, Don Edgerly, Brian Pittelko, Claudette Robey, Bridget Timmeney, Jim Robey Feb 2015

Economic Development Recommendations That Focus On The "Working Poor": Lessons From Waco, George Erickcek, Don Edgerly, Brian Pittelko, Claudette Robey, Bridget Timmeney, Jim Robey

George A. Erickcek

No abstract provided.


Designing Inclusion: Tools To Raise Low-End Pay And Employment In Private Enterprise By Edmund S. Phelps, Timothy Bartik Jan 2015

Designing Inclusion: Tools To Raise Low-End Pay And Employment In Private Enterprise By Edmund S. Phelps, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Subsidizing Increased Employment For The Urban Poor: What Labor Market Problems Might Justify It?, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Subsidizing Increased Employment For The Urban Poor: What Labor Market Problems Might Justify It?, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Long-Run Implications Of Employment At Different Wage Rates For The Disadvantaged, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Long-Run Implications Of Employment At Different Wage Rates For The Disadvantaged, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Moving Up Or Moving On: Who Advances In The Low-Wage Labor Market? By Fredrik Andersson, Harry J. Holzer, And Julia I. Lane, Timothy Bartik Jan 2015

Moving Up Or Moving On: Who Advances In The Low-Wage Labor Market? By Fredrik Andersson, Harry J. Holzer, And Julia I. Lane, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Generating Jobs: How To Increase Demand For Less-Skilled Workers, Richard B. Freeman, And Peter Gottschalk, Eds., Timothy Bartik Jan 2015

Generating Jobs: How To Increase Demand For Less-Skilled Workers, Richard B. Freeman, And Peter Gottschalk, Eds., Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Fighting Poverty With Labor Demand Policies, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Fighting Poverty With Labor Demand Policies, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


The Effects Of Local Labor Demand On Individual Labor Market Outcomes For Different Demographic Groups And The Poor, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

The Effects Of Local Labor Demand On Individual Labor Market Outcomes For Different Demographic Groups And The Poor, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

The contribution of this paper is to use panel data on individuals (specifically, data from the Panel Survey on Income Dynamics) to examine how local demand conditions affect the economic well-being of disadvantaged groups and the poor. Previous research on local labor demand conditions uses data from a single cross-section of local economies, or a time-series of cross-sections of regions. With such data, estimated effects of local labor demand conditions on average labor market outcomes might be attributable to changes in local population composition, as we would expect local demand conditions to change in- and out-migration patterns. Because panel data …


The Distributional Effects Of Local Labor Demand And Industrial Mix: Estimates Using Individual Panel Data, Timothy Bartik Jan 2015

The Distributional Effects Of Local Labor Demand And Industrial Mix: Estimates Using Individual Panel Data, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Low-Income Housing Development, Poverty Concentration, And Neighborhood Inequality, Matthew Freedman, Tamara Mcgavock Dec 2014

Low-Income Housing Development, Poverty Concentration, And Neighborhood Inequality, Matthew Freedman, Tamara Mcgavock

Matthew Freedman

Considerable debate exists about the merits of place-based programs that steer new development, and particularly affordable housing development, into low-income neighborhoods. Exploiting quasi-experimental variation in incentives to construct and rehabilitate rental housing across neighborhoods generated by Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program rules, we explore the impacts of subsidized development on local housing construction, poverty concentration, and neighborhood inequality. While a large fraction of rental housing development spurred by the program is offset by a reduction in the number of new unsubsidized units, housing investment under the LIHTC has measurable effects on the distribution of income within and across communities. …


Reading Between The Poverty Lines, Srijit Mishra Sep 2014

Reading Between The Poverty Lines, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

The proposed Rangarajan method on measurement of poverty in India borrows elements from three earlier methods – those of Alagh, Lakdawala and Tendulkar. An important departure in the Rangarajan method is to compute the poverty line commodity basket by combining items from two fractile groups to address the relatively higher expenses for some essential non-food items. This, while being statistically plausible, poses a behavioural dilemma, as there will be no fractile group that will satisfy both. As an alternative, we suggest dual poverty lines where the fi rst is computed on the basis of average calorie, protein and fat requirements …


Livestock Development And Poverty In Pakistan: Evidence From The Punjab Province, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad May 2014

Livestock Development And Poverty In Pakistan: Evidence From The Punjab Province, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad

Sharafat Ali

Agriculture sector being an important and fundamental sector of the economy is the way of life for more than half of the Pakistan’s population. Its major sector is livestock sector. Livestock sector is the source of income and a safety against the crop failures or drought. Most of the rural population earns their living from this sector. Aspired from the argument that livestock has great importance in the life of the poor households, the present study is an attempt to analyze the impact of livestock sector development on poverty in Pakistan. The cross sectional data of 34 districts of Punjab …


Elegy In An American Graveyard, Prose/Poem 3/27/2014, Charles Kay Smith Mar 2014

Elegy In An American Graveyard, Prose/Poem 3/27/2014, Charles Kay Smith

Charles Kay Smith

An update of Thomas Grey's majestic Elegy In A Country Churchyard. Our Economy is very different and so must be our politics.


The Evolution Of Poverty And Inequality In Sub-Saharan Africa Over The Period 1980-2010: What Do We (And Can We) Know Given The Data Available?, Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu Mar 2014

The Evolution Of Poverty And Inequality In Sub-Saharan Africa Over The Period 1980-2010: What Do We (And Can We) Know Given The Data Available?, Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu

Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu

No abstract provided.


American Inequality, A Prose/Poem 3/2/2014, Charles Smith Mar 2014

American Inequality, A Prose/Poem 3/2/2014, Charles Smith

Charles Kay Smith

Science has made possible an increased productivity that creates an economic surplus--science continually teaches us how to do more with less resources. Why should the fruits of science be enjoyed only by the rich, since most of the innovations of science and technology have been funded or subsidized by citizen taxes. If the added productivity of science were shared among all citizens instead of only the 1%, poverty and homelessness could be ended.


Double Jeopardy: Low-Wage And Low-Income Workers In Massachusetts, 1980–2009, Randy Albelda, Michael Carr Feb 2014

Double Jeopardy: Low-Wage And Low-Income Workers In Massachusetts, 1980–2009, Randy Albelda, Michael Carr

Michael Carr

Data reveal a growing number of Massachusetts workers who both earn low wages and live in low-income families. They face “double jeopardy”: As low-wage earners, they are least likely to receive employer-sponsored benefits, yet they are often ineligible for means-tested government anti-poverty programs.


A Longitudinal Study Of Well-Being Of Older Europeans: Does Retirement Matter?, Raquel Fonseca, Arie Kapteyn, Jinkook Lee, Gema Zamarro, Kevin Feeney Dec 2013

A Longitudinal Study Of Well-Being Of Older Europeans: Does Retirement Matter?, Raquel Fonseca, Arie Kapteyn, Jinkook Lee, Gema Zamarro, Kevin Feeney

Gema Zamarro

We examine determinants of financial and subjective well-being, in particular poverty and depression, among older individuals in Europe. We do so using the 2004, 2006, and 2010 waves of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe and estimating dynamic panel data and binary choice transition models. We find a number of common effects across financial and subjective well-being. Unemployment, disabilities, serious health conditions, lower education, being female, and not being married increase the probability of poverty or depression. Conversely, healthy individuals, those with higher levels of education, males, and married individuals have higher probabilities of exiting poverty or …


The Influence Of Parental Aspirations, Attitudes, And Engagement On Children's Very Low Food Security, Elizabeth T. Powers Aug 2013

The Influence Of Parental Aspirations, Attitudes, And Engagement On Children's Very Low Food Security, Elizabeth T. Powers

Elizabeth T Powers

Survey of Income and Program Participation data are used to investigate the relationship between parenting and children’s very low food security. Parenting is characterized along five domains (emotional outlook, support, education desires, activities with the child excluding meals, and television viewing rules). Food security definitions are obtained from questions in a special SIPP module that are based on the USDA’s core food security module. Graphical evidence indicates that parenting patterns differ distinctly for households experiencing various levels of food insecurity. Descriptive regression evidence suggests that some of the parenting attributes are significantly associated with children’s food insecurity, even controlling for …


The Underutilized Foreign Investor, Griffin Weaver Aug 2013

The Underutilized Foreign Investor, Griffin Weaver

Griffin Weaver

For most states, if not all, the push for economic advancement is at the front of every administration’s agenda. This is especially true for developing countries in the Middle East whose standard of living and international power is largely tied to its economic condition. An important indicator, if not condition, of a state’s economic health is the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) received by the state. This inflow of money is essential for the growth and stability of a state’s economy. As one U.S. official once noted, the United States “need[s] a net inflow of capital of $3 billion …