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The purpose of this study is to understand what health and safety hazards low-income households are subject to by surveying the real conditions of the defective housing of low-income households, and to find improvement strategies. For this purpose, we visited the concentrated areas of the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) (also known as multi-family residential) housing in Jungwon-gu and Sujeong-gu in Seongnam City, Kyunggi-do, one of the representative areas in Korea with a massive distribution of the low-income class. Based on the survey data, the level of housing defects were comparison analyzed per income decile (decile 1, decile 2, deciles 3–4), and per housing location, in the categories of subsidence, cracks in the wall, delamination, water leakage/infiltration, condensation, and contamination. The housing condition per income class was more defective in the decile 2 households rather than in the decile 2 households, and in the substructure more than in the superstructure. Among the six defects, contamination problems, caused by sub-standard living conditions, were the most frequent cases. Structural defects, subsidence and cracks in the wall, were found in the main living areas—the bedrooms and the living rooms. It was confirmed in this study that the conditions of low-income housing are serious, and that it is necessary to explore specific countermeasures in the near future.

The author proposes analyzing the dynamics of income positions using dynamic panel ordered probit models. The author disentangles, simultaneously, the roles of state dependence and heterogeneity (observed and non-observed) in explaining income position persistence, such as poverty persistence and affluence persistence. The author applies the approach to Chile exploiting longitudinal data from the P-CASEN 2006–2009. First, the author finds that income position mobility at the bottom and the top of the income distribution is much higher than expected, showing signs that income mobility in the case of Chile might be connected to economic insecurity. Second, the observable individual characteristics have a much stronger impact than true state dependence to explain individuals’ current income position in the income distribution extremes.

The first objective of this study is to analyze whether financial behavior (FB), financial stress (FS), financial literacy (FINLIT) and the locus of control (LOC) influence subjective financial well-being (SFWB) among low-income households in Malaysia. The second objective is to investigate whether the use of digital financial services (DFS) moderates the influence of FB and FS, on SFWB.

Motivated by the literature on transformative service research (TRS), this study examines how the use of DFS impact SFWB among low-income households in Malaysia. Low-income households are chosen as they are more likely to be financially excluded and lack financial knowledge and skills. Using an interviewer-administered survey, trained enumerators collected data from 1,948 low-income households in Malaysia, selected using a two-stage sampling based on the National Household Sampling Frame obtained from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Results reveal that SFWB is positively influenced by FB and the LOC, and is negatively impacted by FS and FINLIT. The evidence shows that the use of DFS counterintuitively weakened the strength of the relationship between FB and SFWB, but effectively reduced the adverse effect of FS on SFWB.

To reverse the signs of relationship, financial services marketers need to identify the specific types of DFS that low-income households use in order to provide targeted marketing efforts and financial education to promote the use of DFS on a more holistic basis to increase financial well-being.

The findings of this study add to the body of knowledge deliberating on the opposing effects of technology on consumers' welfare and well-being. This study focuses on the lower-income stratum of Malaysian households as this group of the population is more likely to be financially excluded and have deficiencies in financial knowledge and skills. Findings of this study show that DFS use can actually diminish the positive impact of FB on SFWB while reducing the adverse effect of FS on SFWB.

This paper examines the determinants of savings among low-income households, regarded as non-Ricardian households (NRHs), in South Africa. NRHs comprise low-income households largely depending on government welfare benefits for sustenance. This research investigates socio-economic factors determining savings pattern of low-income households in South Africa.

The research makes use of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data set wave one to five. The longitudinal survey models are analysed in determining the socio-economic characteristics of NRH in South Africa. The estimators include Pooled ordinary least square (OLS), fixed and random effects methods.

The household grant contributes positively to the level of savings, but the savings level is still considerably low: majority of the low-income households have zero or negative savings. The average size of a NRH is about twice the size of the Ricardian, despite the NRHs’ debt burden impoverishing them.

The self-perpetuated poverty problem makes every factor in the vicious cycle both cause and effect of another factor, warranting reverse causality and threatening the reliability of Pooled OLS estimates for the research.

The growing cost of government grant hinges on the increased level of inflation while largely depending on the number of households entering the low-income threshold.

The study recommends that the government creates a more enabling environment for NRHs to engage in productive activities. Also they create more low-skilled jobs and encourage reduction of birth rate among low-income households; this will reduce their expenditure and increase their level of savings and will assist in pulling them out of the vicious circle of poverty. Government can boost NRHs’ savings through increase in various grants.

The study makes significant contribution towards addressing the unfortunate situation of household savings among low-income brackets in South Africa. The research corroborates other studies on the effectiveness of the fiscal stimulus package to boost the welfare and savings condition of NRHs in South Africa. The result explicitly confirmed the redistribution policy of the grant to the low-income household. The grant has a significant positive effect on the savings pattern of the household. An increase in it beyond the poverty threshold could indeed break the vicious circle of poverty since the effect does not only stop at expenditure but also pass through to savings, which may ultimately boost investment. Further studies should continue the investigation of grant transmission channels to investment and income.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2019-0692

The major purpose of this study was to compare the fresh chicken meat consumption structure of urban and rural households of different income levels in Van province, Turkey.

The sample size of 96 urban and 95 households were selected randomly using sampling selection method where the population is limited. The data were collected by personnel interviewing from the households in eight districts and eight villages of Van province, Turkey between 15 November 2004 and 5 March 2005. The households were classified as the lowest, medium, upper medium and the highest income groups. Independent‐samples t‐students, one‐way ANOVA, chi‐square and linear regression statistical tests were used.

The average yearly fresh chicken meat consumption per head was 19.1 and 14.6 kg for urban and rural households, respectively. According to regression test results $1,000 increase in yearly income will raise the yearly chicken meat consumption of urban and rural households by 3.8 and 8.7 kg, respectively. The income was effective on both the consumption level and behavior of households. The urban households attached more attention to habit and nutrition value variables, while the cheapness was the major factor affecting the rural households' preference of chicken meat.

The article analyzes the differences/similarities of urban and rural households in terms of consumption expenditures and consumers' behaviors towards fresh chicken meat. The paper is an original research subject as regards its potential contributions of the nutritional measures to be taken and marketing strategies to be developed in the region.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of market-based approach to provision of housing to low-income households in urban Malawi.

This study was conducted in Blantyre, Malawi, between 2019 and 2022 and used both quantitative (household survey) and qualitative (in-depth interviews and document study) methods of data collection. Interviews were conducted with key players and investors in the housing sector. Household survey data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, which allowed the generation of descriptive housing valuables, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis.

This paper demonstrates that, rather than ameliorating the housing problems facing low-income households, the market approach to provision of housing in Malawi has worsened the housing situation in the country. This is so because the market approach to the provision of housing in Malawi is not only enforcing the logic of capitalistic accumulation in the housing sector but also supporting mechanisms of exclusion based on economic stratification within the community.

Completeness of data over time as there is no market data bank available in the country.

The findings from this study suggest that some degree of state intervention in addressing the housing problem in Malawi is required.

The study findings suggest that a market approach to the provision of housing can increase social inequality as low-income households face challenges in accessing housing.

There is a paucity of research on the effects of the market approach on the provision of affordable housing to low-income households in Malawi. This paper assesses this important policy gap and provides significant policy directions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether existing theories on saving behaviour and empirical findings on the determinants of saving behaviour can be generalised for the low-income households in developing countries.

The paper adopts Van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with female household members that belong to low-income households and do not have any member of the household with a permanent job. Interviews were conducted in the cities of Bangalore and Indore in India. Lived experience of participants was captured using conversational interviews and thematic analyses.

The paper provides evidence that the existing literature on saving behaviour is inadequate in explaining either the saving behaviour or the determinants for saving for low-income households in developing countries. This paper finds evidence of poor institutional access and reliance on informal financial intermediaries for low-income households.

This paper establishes the need for a qualitative study with a large sample size to determine the policy interventions and institutional drivers that will encourage low-income households to migrate from the informal financial intermediaries to formal banking institutions.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first qualitative paper aimed at understanding saving behaviour of low-income households. Extant literature is focused on normative economic frameworks that bear limited relation to the contextual realities of low-income households in the developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to explore fruit and vegetable (FV) procurement disparity across income groups.

This study uses mean comparison and quintile regression to explain FVs variations.

Households from the highest income quantile spend more than two times on FVs than households from the lowest quantile; however, this expenditure disparity is largely mitigated in terms of purchase quantity. This paper presents evidence that, rather than quantity discounts or income neighborhood, the type of store (traditional markets vs supermarkets) plays a relevant role in explaining the smaller gap in terms of purchase quantity.

Traditional markets help low-income households access low-cost FVs.

The authors generate evidence to show that traditional markets play a relevant role to supply affordable FV to low-income households.

The paper used a high-quality and uncommon data set. It is a topic of high social impact.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the probability of low income for households with disabled members in Italy, over the period 2004‐2007, with special focus on the role of persistence.

Households with disabled members are compared with those without disabled members, and those with disabled members temporary limited. Alternative definitions of disability are considered. The probability of low income is estimated adopting dynamic probit models accounting for unobserved heterogeneity, state dependence and endogenous initial conditions.

Evidence is found of significant true state dependence for households with disabled members. However, true state dependence does not significantly differ from that of other households. The probability of low income for households with disabled members is also determined by some structural variables, such as employment of disabled individuals, living in the South, household's partner employment and household size.

In the short run, money transfer is effective to lift households with disabled members from low income and to prevent the risk of low income in the future. Structural policies are possibly relevant in reducing the long‐term risk of low income. These include interventions to favour employment of disabled members and development of caring services for disabled members to free family members for outside work.

Not much is known about how disability affects the conditions of households with disabled members. The paper contributes to this literature with a novel analysis of low income persistence, providing some policy suggestions.

Under the impetus of federal law, each state is required to develop Guidelines by which to determine presumptive child support awards following divorce. The key federal requirement is that during the specified quadrennial reviews of each state’s Guidelines, “a state must consider economic data on the cost of raising children.” Our purpose here is to compare presumptive child support awards provided in typical state Guidelines with the actual monetary costs of raising children.

To this end, we estimate these monetary costs from government data on consumer outlays in households with children as compared with substantially similar childless households. We review and reject current methods for determining child costs: both from income equivalence methods and those offered in annual government surveys; and provide quite different results despite using the same data employed by others.

Our econometric results indicate much lower monetary costs than reported for either of the two alternatives. Since presumptive child support awards in most states rely on current methods, these findings suggest that existing award structures should be re-evaluated.

Current award structures create a financial asset resulting from the gap between presumptive awards and monetary costs for custodial parents. This factor engenders resentment by support payers since it is his or her payments that fund this asset. And this resentment harms relationships between the parents. Increased willingness of non-custodial parents to make their assessed payments is an outcome promoted when payment amounts reflect the actual monetary costs of raising children.