Economics Commons^™

The Growing Concern Of Poverty In The United States: An Exploration Of Food Prices And Poverty On Obesity Rates For Low-Income Citizens, Catherine Gillespie, Kathy Gray, Ethan Bailey, John Zivalich

Undergraduate Economic Review

Studies demonstrate the link between income and obesity, determining factors to explain the strong correlation between high body mass index and low socioeconomic status. Many focus on uncovering predictors but few use a systems approach: identifying the interaction among predictors and their relative magnitude concerning obesity. This study asks: do poverty or food price indicators have a statistically stronger relationship with obesity?

By collecting data, evaluating trends, and analyzing statistics, this study extends research by revealing a stronger relationship between obesity and food prices as opposed to obesity and poverty.

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

Economics Faculty Publication Series

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.

Social Norms, Discrete Choices, And False Dichotomies, Eric Schniter, Nathaniel Wilcox

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Eric Schniter and Nathaniel Wilcox comment on Bram Tucker's article, "Do Risk and Time Experimental Choices Represent Individual Strategies for Coping with Poverty or Conformity to Social Norms? Evidence from Rural Southwestern Madagascar", which "revisits a debate played out in Current Anthropology as to whether subsistence decisions are the result of individual strategy to cope with poverty and increase wealth... or conformity to social norms."

International Organization And Poverty Alleviation, William F. Felice, Diana Fuguitt

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The World Trade Organization and Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by Sarah Joseph, David Kinley & Jeff Waincymer. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. 2009.

and

Global Poverty, Ethics and Human Rights. By Desmond McNeill & Asunción St. Clair. New York, NY: Routledge. 2009.

and

Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform. By Catherine Weaver. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2008.

Results And Recommendations Of Water And Wastewater Affordability Study, Ryan A. Breisach, George A. Erickcek, Brad R. Watts

Reports

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Antipoverty Policies In The United States, James P. Ziliak

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

I survey recent developments in antipoverty policy in the United States over the past decade and examine how the safety net and tax system affects poverty and its correlates using data from the 2000 to 2010 waves of the Current Population Survey-Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Unlike the 1980s and 1990s, and until the health care overhaul in 2009, the first decade of the 21st Century was relatively tepid in terms of major transfer policy reforms. However, real spending on most major social program increased significantly, and in some cases doubled or tripled, in response to demographic shifts and the …

Social Interactions In The Labor Market, Andrew Grodner, Thomas J. Kniesner, John A. Bishop

Center for Policy Research

We examine theoretically and empirically social interactions in labor markets and how policy prescriptions can change dramatically when there are social interactions present.

Spillover effects increase labor supply and conformity effects make labor supply perfectly inelastic at a reference group average. The demand for a good may also be influenced by either a spillover effect or a conformity effect. Positive spillover increases the demand for the good with interactions, and a conformity effect makes the demand curve pivot to become less price sensitive. Similar social interactions effects appear in the associated derived demands for labor.

Individual and community factors may …

Echoes From Geneva: Finding John Calvin’S Socio-Economic Interests In The Modern World, Brenda K. Savage

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Through an examination of John Calvin’s intentions in ending the prohibition on usury and the practical application of his teachings in sixteenth-century Geneva, and a consideration of the elements of poverty, social outcasts, and exploitation common to both Geneva and the modern world, it can be argued that the Reformer has much to offer of continued relevancy for those seeking to engage their contemporary world by finding alternatives that can help the financially disenfranchised. Calvin is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Interest,” and as such many people have directly blamed him for the exploitation associated with capitalism. …

The Poverty Of Wealth And Income In The United States, Luke E. G. Feudner

Professional Projects

An alternative poverty rate was calculated using poverty thresholds from the U.S. Census Bureau to assess income poverty and a similar set of thresholds at four months’ of the poverty threshold for annual income to assess wealth (i.e. net worth) poverty. Using point estimates derived from the multiple imputations of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) between the years of 1989 and 2007, the findings revealed the percentage of households in poverty by both measures was 6% in 2007 compared to 11.1% of households experiencing poverty of income only and 22.4% experiencing a poverty of at least one of the …

A Cross-Sectional Examination Of Factors Affecting Graduation Rates Across The School Divisions In The State Of Virginia., William Perrow

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

When citizens look to the government, there are multiple services that are expected to be provided. One of the most fundamental services is the access to an education to better prepare the nation’s children for the future. Education is not just a service that is expected, it is a necessity in the global world that the United States is competing in. Currently the United State of America is facing large numbers of high school students who are dropping out. This is a major concern for the future productivity and welfare of the nation. What is the problem that has caused …

Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just (Book Review), Nathanael D. Peach

Faculty Publications - College of Business

No abstract provided.

Part 4: The Economic Plight Of African American Men In Hampton Roads, Regional Studies Institute, Old Dominion University

State of the Region Reports: Hampton Roads

The worldwide recession significantly worsened the economic condition of African American men. There are multiple reasons why this was so and credible solutions often are controversial.

A Philosophical Framework For Conditional Cash Transfers, Jaron Abelsohn

CMC Senior Theses

Despite some recent economic progress, there is still widespread poverty and severe inequality in developing countries. According to the World Bank there are over 925 million hungry or undernourished people worldwide. More than 80 percent of people in the world live in countries whose income inequality is rising. Over 2.1 billion people globally live on less than two dollars a day, with over 880 million people facing absolute poverty and living on less than one dollar a day. Three out of four people living on less than $1 a day live in rural areas. These impacts have been magnified by …

Africa's Economic Resurgence: Is It Possible?, Alka Jauhari

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

Economic theory suggests that inequality between nations is caused by a failure to strike an optimal balance between capital, goods, and labor within a framework of appropriate rules and regulations. This leads to misallocation of a nation's resources - both capital and physical - resulting in distorted use and flow of capital and goods. Politics, regulation and policy-making lie at the heart of such "distortions" which come at a huge cost to societies. Due to these distorted flows, Africa was left behind in the race for economic development, as compared to the other regions of the world. Such distortions have …

The High Costs Of Small Loans: Understanding Interest Rates In Microfinance, Benjamin W. Hudgens

CMC Senior Theses

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000183 EndHTML:0000003190 StartFragment:0000002393 EndFragment:0000003154 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/benjaminhudgens/Desktop/Final%20Thesis.docx This thesis will use data from 2009 to examine two questions about the Microfinance industry. First, why do firms charge interest rates well beyond their cost of funds and second, are there important differences at the national level that can help us to understand the high interest rates in Microfinance? I find that interest rates are primarily a result of operating expenses, but profit-status has large effects in developed Microfinance markets. I also find that the Economist Intelligence Unit’s measures of regulatory environment and industrial development explain a large portion of the variation in …

Special Education, Poverty, And The Limits Of Private Enforcement, Eloise Pasachoff

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article examines the appropriate balance between public and private enforcement of statutes seeking to distribute resources or social services to a socioeconomically diverse set of beneficiaries through a case study of the federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It focuses particularly on the extent to which the Act’s enforcement regime sufficiently enforces the law for the poor. The Article responds to the frequent contention that private enforcement of statutory regimes is necessary to compensate for the shortcomings of public enforcement. Public enforcement, the story goes, is inefficient and relies on underfunded, captured, or impotent …

The Second-Generation Effects Of Microcredit In Western Guatemala, Jordyn Elizabeth Haught

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most microfinance institutions have assumed that positive second-generation effects follow involvement in microcredit, but the nature of these effects has been unclear since few scholars have directly focused their attention on them. To address this gap in the literature I conducted exploratory survey research in Western Guatemala in January 2011. I returned with 97 interviews conducted with 68 Guatemalans who had received a microloan at some point in their lives, and 29 who had never received a formal loan. In the sample of their 306 children, the parents of 94 had never received a loan, while the parents of 212 …

Pengeluaran Sektor Publik, Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Dan Kemiskinan Di Indonesia, Ferry Prasetyia, Farah Wulandari, Ri Setia Hutama

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

The aim of this paper was to determine the effect of public sector expenditure to economic growth and poverty in all provinces in Indonesia during period 2006 to 2008. Using Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) approach, the result showed that public sector expenditure on education and health sector had significant effect in boosting economic growth. Inaddition, the output produced by the education and health sector, both of the output had significant effect on economic growth. While, public sector expenditure on infrastructure had insignificant effect. Furthermore, this study showed that public sector expenditure on education and health also had significant effect …

Correlates Of Poverty: Evidence From The Community-Based Monitoring System (Cbms) Data, Rechel G. Arcilla, Frumencio F. Co, Shirlee R. Ocampo

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This study identified correlates of poverty for Pasay City and Mogpog, Marinduque representing an urban and a rural area in the Philippines, respectively, by utilizing the 2005 census data from its Community-Based Monitoring System. Regression models with the arcsine of the square root of barangay level poverty incidence as dependent variable were investigated which allowed the identification of the correlates of poverty at the barangay level. Results showed that the significant correlates of barangay poverty incidence were average household size, proportion of households whose housing units/lot are not owned and proportion of households who own telephone/cellphone. Furthermore, lower poverty incidences …

The Geographic Profiling Of Poverty And Accessibility: The Case Of Two Provinces In The Philippines, Alexis M. Fillone, Nicanor Roxas Jr., Cristela G. Dakila

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This study attempts to relate the poverty problem in the Philippines using spatial accessibility measures. Spatial accessibility is the ease with which one could avail of the social services and economic opportunities laid in geographic space to the individual. Using the provinces of Eastern Samar and Siquijor Island as case studies, a Social Composite Index (SCI) value for the household was derived from the 13+1 CBMS core indicators of poverty, which represents the unmet needs of the household and which was then aggregated at the barangay level. The spatial accessibility values were estimated by measuring how each barangay, specifically households, …

Economic Writing On The Pressing Problems Of The Day: The Roles Of Moral Intuition And Methodological Confusion, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of concern, underlies this reluctance and compromises the quality of economic advice. The tension between caring about the problems, on the one hand, and writing within the existing culture of the discipline, on the other, are illustrated with examples from U.S. policymaking, behavioral economics, and the economics of climate change and global poverty. …

Poverty, Inequality And Cost Of Living Differences, Enrico Moretti

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Metropolitan areas in the US are characterized by enormous differences in average income, earnings, and factor productivity. The income of individuals located in metropolitan areas at the top of the income distribution is more than double the income of observationally similar individuals located in metropolitan areas at the bottom of the distribution. These differences reflect, at least in part, variation in local productivity.

Analysis Of The Impact Of Changes In The Prices Of Rice And Fuel On Poverty In The Philippines, Celia M. Reyes, Alellie B. Sobrevinas, Joel Bancolita, Jeremy De Jesus

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This study aims to assess the impact of rising prices of rice and fuel on poverty in the Philippines. In particular, the variations in the potential effects among different group of households were analyzed using household level data. Results of the study confirm that the impact of increasing prices of rice and fuel vary across different groups of households depending on the sector of employment, level of urbanity, income group and geographical location. In fact, there are losers and gainers from the recent increases in the prices of rice and fuel. In response to higher prices, households adopted different coping …

Pakistan's Growth Experience 1947-2007, Ishrat Hussain

Business Review

Pakistan's growth experience over the past sixty years is both impressive and disappointing. It is impressive because rapid growth rate has resulted in a quadrupling of per capita incomes and reduction in poverty levels by one half despite fairly high population growth. Structural changes have transformed a predominantly agrarian economy to a more diversified production structure. Manufactures account for 80 percent of the country's exports. But there is a sense of disappointment too. Social indicators are among the worst in developing countries. Pakistan ranks 134th among 177 countries in Human Development Index. Income Inequalities, Rural Urban disparities and Gender differentials …

Protected Areas Reduced Poverty In Costa Rica And Thailand, Kwaw S. Andam, Paul J. Ferraro, Katharine R. E. Sims, Andrew Healy, Margaret B. Holland

Economics Faculty Works

As global efforts to protect ecosystems expand, the socioeconomic impact of protected areas on neighboring human communities continues to be a source of intense debate. The debate persists because previous studies do not directly measure socioeconomic outcomes and do not use appropriate comparison groups to account for potential confounders. We illustrate an approach using comprehensive national datasets and quasi-experimental matching methods. We estimate impacts of protected area systems on poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand and find that although communities near protected areas are indeed substantially poorer than national averages, an analysis based on comparison with appropriate controls does not …

Renewed Growth And Poverty Reduction In Zambia, Arne Bigsten, Sven Tengstam

Zambia Social Science Journal

The Zambian economy has grown relatively fast over the last decade. This article discusses the challenge of using these growing resources effectively to improve the welfare of the population and reduce poverty. The poverty head count index is found to have declined between 1998 and 2004 by about 5.4 percentage points. This change can be decomposed into a 6.6 percentage point reduction due to growth and a 1.2 percentage point increase due to inequality change.

Since poverty is most severe in the rural areas, it is important to make agriculture more efficient by expanding access to electricity and improving roads, …

The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining The Revolution To Lift The World Out Of Poverty (Book Review), Nathanael D. Peach

Faculty Publications - College of Business

No abstract provided.

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

Mothers' Work And Children's Lives: Low-Income Families After Welfare Reform, Rucker C. Johnson, Ariel Kalil, Rachel E. Dunifon

Upjohn Press

This book examines the effects of work requirements imposed by welfare reform on low-income women and their families. The authors pay particular attention to the nature of work—whether it is stable or unstable, the number of hours worked in a week and the regularity and flexibility of work schedules. They also show how these factors make it more difficult for low-income women to balance their work and family requirements.

Mapping Energy Poverty In Huntington, West Virginia, Elizabeth Anne Callicoat

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Energy poverty is a growing phenomenon culminating from the combination of low to mid household income, deteriorating housing structures and rising household energy costs. Energy prices are increasing for all households, but the burden is proportionally larger for those with low to mid income. These groups must sacrifice to afford energy and are often unable or do not have the autonomy to make structural improvements, especially if they rent their home. Data on residential dwellings from the Cabell County Tax Assessor? Office were used within a geographic information system to map where energy poverty likely exists within the city limits …