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The present study evaluates the impact of special economic zones (SEZs) on poverty, both rural and urban with special reference to Andhra Pradesh in India, using household consumption expenditure data. In addition to estimating the effects of the SEZs on poverty, the authors explore some of the possible mechanisms generating these effects.

The authors apply a difference-in-differences (DID) technique on a pooled, cross-sectional, district-level dataset based on official annual household surveys for the period from 2001 to 2012 to estimate the average effects of SEZs on household expenditure per capita, a commonly used measure of household poverty.

The establishment of the SEZs constituted a major exogenous shock to rural economies by creating demand for large chunks of land, which had an immediate impact on the economic and social settings of these economies and aggravated rural poverty. However, over time the poverty aggravating effects of SEZs in rural areas dampened. The effects of SEZs on urban poverty are found to be different from those on rural poverty. It is also revealed that the districts with multiple SEZs experienced larger effects than those with only one or two SEZs. Overall, the SEZs did have positive expenditure effects, but this transition might have been accompanied by heightened inequality between the rural and urban areas.

First, the authors did not have access to village or municipal-level consumption data. It is therefore assumed here that district level performance is a reliable proxy for the relevant impacts of SEZ operations. Second, panel data, which would allow more precise measurement of effects than the pooled cross section data used in this study, are not available. Third, the authors’ econometric analysis is essentially comparative statics in nature and does not capture possible spillover dynamics, issues of relocation of economic activity, or migration.

First, land acquisition is likely to emerge as a major political and social challenge for the localities that host SEZs. For effective policy implementation, it is necessary to establish legal institutions to address this challenge. Second, governments in developing countries often announce new SEZ programmes on a very large scale and insist that they be implemented over short periods of time. The authors recommend that the government should adopt an experimental approach in implementing the policy. Third, the authors provide evidence that in the long run, effects of SEZs hinge on the success of SEZs in attracting investment and generating additional employment. The policy must therefore be informed by rigorous analysis of the potential of SEZs in the country, as well as alternative policy options.

The authors’ results show that large-scale land acquisitions to implement large industrial projects are likely to result in shocks to the rural economy exacerbating rural-urban inequalities: village communities lose their resource base, are marginalised in the process, and, as a result, face economic deprivations. It may lead to severe economic, social and political consequences. The authors’ study implies that any strategy for large-scale industrialisation should take cognisance of its effects on the affected communities and should be designed to include strategies to improve their economic opportunities and to ensure social inclusion.

SEZs are one of the most controversial topics within development policy discourse. Their regional development effects are subject to intense debate. Yet, there is surprisingly little systematic evaluation to inform the debate and to guide policymakers. This is one of the earliest studies to assess the poverty effects of SEZs and is the first for India, using household consumption data.

Compared to other neighbouring South Asian countries, Sri Lanka performs well in terms of education outcomes. Education is provided by the government for free from primary school level to the first-degree University level, yet households’ private education expenses are steadily increasing over time. Thus, this paper analyses trends and determinants of household private education expenditures using the country-wide micro-data from 1990 to 2013.

Using Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 1990/91, 2002 and 2012/13 data along with annual school census data, this paper examines the relationship between private education expenditure patterns and the observed changes of reported both demand-side and supply-side factors. In particular, the present paper analyses determinants of household private education expenditures within the two-part model econometric framework by taking into account location and time fixed-effects.

The results show that trend of spending privately for education is increasing over time with rising household income. Rural, Tamil and Islamic households and those headed by less-educated members are less likely to spend privately for education. The results also confirm that improved-supply-side factors can significantly lower the household burden arising from out-of-pocket education expenditure.

Unavailability of panel data and missing data on several districts due to security concerns are limitations of the study.

The trend of increasing private education expenses has implications on equity concerns of education in Sri Lanka, and it can undermine the purpose of free public education policy.

To our knowledge, this is the first study for Sri Lanka that examines patterns and determinants of private education expenditures using nationwide data for last two decades. This paper applies novel econometric techniques to account for various issues in household survey data analysis.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2019-0445

Using the 2001 Census data, this paper analyses district‐level rural‐to‐urban migration rates (both intra‐state and inter‐state) among males and females separately. Though many of the relatively poor and backward states actually show large population mobility, male migration is also prominent in the relatively high‐income states. Rural women, on the other hand, usually migrate within the boundaries of the states. The social networks effects are prevalent among the short‐distance migrants, and the North/South divide in the Indian context is indeed a significant phenomenon, with the exception of a few metropolitan cities. Looking at the effect of factors at the place of destination, prospects for better job opportunities are a major determinant of male migration. Low castes, minority groups and women show network effects. The paper finally brings out the effect of migration on health.

The study seeks to examine the extent and the causes of multidimensional poverty as opposed to the traditional unidimensional headcount poverty measures to understand the true face of economic deprivation in Punjab, Pakistan.

Poverty is measured through the Alkire–Foster index at the geographically disaggregated levels of divisions and districts, and the causes of pervasive poverty are analyzed through a logit model using the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) comprising of 95,238 households in 9 geographical divisions and their 36 districts.

It was found that poverty in Punjab is associated with larger household size, inadequate wealth, and low levels of educational attainment, and that both matric as well as post-matric education reduced the chances of poverty of household heads by approximately 19 percent. In addition to rural poverty, the study finds evidence of urban poverty across the geographical districts of Punjab. Contrary to common belief that chances of poverty are higher in females, it was found to be more likely in males. However, the statistical significance of gender as a determinant of poverty was not observed in the majority of divisions.

Practical implications were for focused policy interventions in poverty alleviation.

The analysis of determinants of multidimensional poverty at the geographically disaggregated level of divisions is an original contribution.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2019-0037

The purpose of this study is to identify the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia and help decision-makers in developing and prioritising effective adaptive strategies and actions.

A multi-scale analytical tool and hazard-generic socio-economic indicators were developed to identify and prioritise the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia. Categorical principal component analysis with 36 indicators was used to develop weights for different indicators and construct a household intrinsic vulnerability index. Data were collected through key information interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey with 1,602 randomly selected households in three districts of Northwest Ethiopia.

Drawing on intrinsic vulnerability index computation, this study highlights that low levels of education, low access to climate information and credit services, long distance travelled to fetch water and frequent food shortages are the dominant factors contributing to high levels of intrinsic vulnerability at district level, while lack of livelihood support and income diversification are the key drivers of vulnerability at household level. The findings of this study further show that the majority of households (78.01%) falls within the very high to moderately high vulnerable category. Disaggregating the data according to agro-climatic zones highlights that the prevalence of high intrinsic vulnerability is most widespread in the lowland agro-climatic zone (82.64%), followed by the highland (81.97%) and midland zones (69.40%).

From a policy intervention vantage point, addressing the drivers of vulnerability provides a reliable approach to reduce the current vulnerability level and manage potential climate change-induced risks of a system. Specifically, reliable information on inherent vulnerability will assist policymakers in developing policies and prioritising actions aimed at reducing vulnerability and assisting in the rational distribution of resources among households at a local level.

This study contributes to the existing vulnerability literature by showing how hazard-generic socio-economic indicators in the vulnerability assessment adopted by the IPCC (2014) are important to identify drives of vulnerability which ultimately may feed into a more fundamental treatment of vulnerability.

Ensuring adequate access to food to all has remained a major challenge of the 21^st century. To aid the effort of hunger alleviation, many studies have quantified the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU), mostly at the national level. There has been limited attention to understanding the intra-country variation in undernourishment estimates.

Unlike past studies, this study tracks the substantial regional heterogeneity in the undernourishment status within Nepal. Employing Food and Agriculture Organization's methodology and Nepal Living Standards Survey data from 1995, 2003 and 2011, household energy consumption and requirements are computed to determine regional undernourishment.

Nepal's PoU declined between 1995 and 2003 but increased after 2003 affecting approximately 7.6 million Nepalese in 2011. The Terai domain – Provinces 2 and 5 – are found to be the most vulnerable to undernourishment concerns likely because of economic and natural shocks. Province 4 achieved higher progress in alleviating undernourishment during 2003, but its PoU doubled in 2011 (as in Province 6).

By examining where and how many are undernourished within Nepal, this study has provided a more accurate picture of the PoU for better-targeting assistance to improve the livelihood of its citizens.

Past studies indicate substantial variation in food access and PoU within Nepal. While they provide some answers to “where and how many” questions for some districts, provinces, belts and urban/rural domains at the cross-sectional level (or for selected locales), few have examined intra-Nepal heterogeneity, especially over time. Therefore, this study explores where and how many within Nepal have been undernourished during the past three decades.

This paper aims to design a vulnerability assessment model considering the multidimensional and systematic approach to disaster risk and vulnerability. This model serves to both risk mitigation and disaster preparedness phases of humanitarian logistics.

A survey of 27,218 households in Pueblo Rico and Dosquebradas was conducted to obtain information about disaster risk for landslides, floods and collapses. We adopted a cross entropy-based approach for the measure of disaster vulnerability (Kullback–Leibler divergence), and a maximum-entropy estimation for the reconstruction of risk a priori categorization (logistic regression). The capabilities approach of Sen supported theoretically our multidimensional assessment of disaster vulnerability.

Disaster vulnerability is shaped by economic, such as physical attributes of households, and health indicators, which are in specific morbidity indicators that seem to affect vulnerability outputs. Vulnerability is heterogeneous between communities/districts according to formal comparisons of Kullback–Leibler divergence. Nor social dimension, neither chronic illness indicators seem to shape vulnerability, at least for Pueblo Rico and Dosquebradas.

The results need a qualitative or case study validation at the community/district level.

We discuss how risk mitigation policies and disaster preparedness strategies can be driven by empirical results. For example, the type of stock to preposition can vary according to the disaster or the kind of alternative policies that can be formulated on the basis of the strong relationship between morbidity and disaster risk.

Entropy-based metrics are not widely used in humanitarian logistics literature, as well as empirical data-driven techniques.

Empirical studies on household-level inflation inequality have so far only focused on periods with positive inflation rates. However, the major concern on the policy agenda since the most recent financial crisis has been deflation rather than inflation. This naturally raises the question regarding the effect of deflation on the distribution of real income when households spend their budget on different consumption bundles. This chapter compiles annual household-level inflation rates in Denmark from 1930 to 1935 based on microdata from the Expenditure and Saving Survey of 1931 and price data from the official Retail Price Index. The results indicate that lower-income households faced a larger decline in prices on their consumption of goods and services during the deflation years 1930–1932 than higher-income households did. The deflation thus contributed to narrowing the difference in real incomes between the top and bottom parts of the income distribution during the recession. In the years 1933–1935 with positive inflation rates, the lower-income households experienced higher inflation rates than higher-income households. Over the period 1930–1935 seen as a whole, the price development contributed slightly to reducing real income inequality. The low degree of medium-term persistence of differences in household-specific inflation rates is consistent with previous findings in various time periods from the 1960s to the 2000s without any persistent deflation events. The chapter at hand is the first empirical study of the direct distributional effects of price developments at the household level in a period with persistent deflation.