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In this paper, I examine the concept of ‘vulnerability’ within the context of income mobility of the poor. While the concept of poverty is well developed, the concept of vulnerability is less established in the economic literature. I test for the dynamics of vulnerable households in the United Kingdom using Waves 1–12 of the British Household Panel Survey and find that, of three different types of risks for which I test, household-specific shocks and economy-wide aggregate shocks have the greatest impact on consumption, in comparison to shocks to the income stream. I find vulnerable households up to at least 10 percentile points above the poverty line. Savings and earnings from a second job are not significantly associated with smoothing consumption of all vulnerable households. The results strongly indicate that income transfers and benefits assist the vulnerable in smoothing consumption. Thus, traditional poverty alleviating policies are not likely to assist the vulnerable.

This study investigates the welfare impact of microfinance on rural households in Indonesia. Its finding will bridge the gap in the Indonesian microfinance literature.

The research was conducted by collecting primary data and administering a structured questionnaire to rural households in Bantul District, Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. We employed the logistic model to measure welfare impacts of microcredit borrowers.

The research finds that purpose of loan, monthly income, monthly expenditure, interest rates, loan amount, education and marital status have significant effects on the probability of increasing borrowers' welfare after accessing microcredit.

This study will propose some policy recommendations for Indonesian policymakers that may yield better strategies to help improve the impact of their microcredit programmes on the welfare of rural households.

The authors confirm that the article has not been submitted to peer review, nor is in the process of peer reviewing and nor has been accepted for publishing in another journal. The author(s) confirms that the research in their work is original, and that all the data given in the article are real and authentic.

Self-employed business owners are far less compliant in reporting and paying their taxes than wage earners (employees). Discounted utility theory suggests that people act rationally and would not be willing to prepay an upcoming obligation. Mental accounting and behavioral economics theory take a different view, asserting that taxpayers will prefer a pay-as-you-go pattern (i.e., regularity). In response to these opposing theories, we conducted a behavioral experiment to see if a taxpayer who is given the opportunity to pay estimated federal income taxes monthly (instead of quarterly) will do so, and also whether they are less delinquent than those in the control group, who paid estimated federal income taxes quarterly. Our results indicate that when respondents were explicitly offered the opportunity to make monthly rather than only quarterly payments, the majority of the respondents opted to make monthly prepayments at least once. Additionally, those with an explicit option to pay as often as monthly rather than quarterly had significantly fewer dollars of delinquency. Paying more frequently could alleviate some budgeting pressures for the self-employed and result in fewer delinquencies to be collected at the federal level.

This paper aims to investigate the housing preference and housing affordability in Malaysian housing markets. There is a lack of research on the gap between supply and demand of houses in this market. Urbanization has increased the demand of houses in urban areas. However, the high demand in residential units increases the housing price which causes the affordability level dropped. Besides, the residences that provided by developers do not meet the expectation of the home buyers. There are three attributes that examined in this research to understand the home buyers’ preference.

This paper provides quantitative analysis on the housing affordability and the home buyers’ preference. This paper presents the results on the home buyers’ housing affordability and buying preference on houses. In addition, the study further confirmed the significant relationship between monthly income and type of preferred house, as well as monthly income and range of housing affordability using cross-tabulation analysis.

The findings indicated that the housing price in the current market is not affordable by most of the homebuyers and there are certain attributes that important to home buyers which should not be neglected.

This paper helps to shed light on the planning of Malaysian housing policy especially on the issue of providing affordable housing in urban areas.

Policymakers shall consider the elements of economics, social acceptance and feasibility of Malaysian housing policies to achieve sustainability in Malaysian housing markets. With the current government’s move to promote housing affordability amongst B40 income groups, local government and housing developers should work together in addressing housing demand in accordance to states and ensure that there is a more targeted housing policy.

With the detailed analysis on the home buyers’ preference, it helps to promote sustainable housing developments in meeting basic housing needs and preference.

This is the first study to examine relationship between Malaysian housing affordability with monthly income and type of preferred house. In the meantime, the housing affordability is compared with mean housing price and type of perceived affordable house. The paper presented homebuyer’s preference in housing for the consideration of government and housing developers in providing affordable housing.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of Islamic microfinance on poor households through the case of the IKSAR Qard al-Hasan Program in Turkey. To achieve this aim, it examined the changes in the socio-economic status of beneficiaries before and after the program.

This paper adopts the convergent parallel mixed method design. It conducted two surveys to micro-entrepreneurs: the first is when they received the loan and the second is when they finished their installments. In addition to the longitudinal data obtained from these two surveys, qualitative data were collected by participant observation and interview technique with visiting these people periodically throughout the interest-free loan (qard al-hasan).

According to the results obtained from the analysis of the pre- and post-surveys, a statistically significant increase of 35% was experienced in the monthly household income after receiving the qard al-hasan loan compared to before. Similarly, a statistically significant increase was found in the monthly expenditures of 23 out of 30 households after receiving the qard al-hasan.

There are two originalities of this study. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first research that examines the only Islamic microfinance program in Turkey. Second, it uses longitudinal data while examining the impact of Islamic microfinance on the welfare of the poor. In the relevant literature, no study has been identified that uses longitudinal data in Islamic microfinance. Similarly, a limited number of longitudinal studies examine the impact of conventional microfinance institutions on the poor.

This paper analyzes individual subjective well-being using a survey database from the Strasbourg metropolitan development council (France). The authors focus on the effects of externalities generated by public services (transport, culture and sport), environmental quality and feeling of security in the Strasbourg metropolitan area (Eurométropole de Strasbourg, EMS). Results show that EMS specificities (public facilities, environmental quality, safety and security) and individual features like opportunities to laugh or live with children significantly influence individual well-being. These findings are robust when using three subjective measures: feeling of well-being, environmental satisfaction and social life satisfaction. The authors also show that income may affect the perceived well-being of individuals belonging to a low-income group, while individuals belonging to a high-income group tend to be unsatisfied with environmental quality but satisfied with their social life. Besides, social comparison in terms of income does not matter for individual well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area.

Theoretical and empirical paper —Utility theory in economics—Econometric modeling using an ordered probit model.

Specificities of the Strasbourg metropolitan area-France (public services related to transport, culture and sport, environmental quality perceived as convenient for individual health, sense of security) significantly impact individual subjective well-being. Income does not substantially impact the individual subjective perception of happiness: income may matter for the feeling of well-being only for individuals belonging to a low-income group. Wealthy individuals tend to be unsatisfied with environmental quality but satisfied with their social life. Social comparison in terms of income does not matter for individual well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area.

Cross-sectional data, but it is the only available database from a survey conducted by EMS in 2017 to collect information on potential elements relative to individual well-being in the Strasbourg metropolitan area.

Results shed light on the role of territorial policies in improving individual well-being and might provide some guidelines for policy-makers concerned about the population’s welfare. Policy-makers should give strong attention to public facilities (an essential element of local public action) and improve environmental quality. If they care about the population’s happiness, they have to reorient current policies in this direction. Of course, through the inquiry in 2017 giving this database, the Strasbourg agglomeration development council aimed to provide such evidence to the local administration. Nevertheless, the results were a bit upsetting for many people in the administrative and political circles, who generally prioritize economic and demographic development, while the citizens’ responses to the inquiry have revealed a strong focus on the quality of everyday life in their neighborhood.

The present study contributes to the literature on subjective well-being, with a focus on the role of local characteristics and living environment. The authors’ starting point is related to the standard utility theory, indicating that environmental quality and public services are positive externalities. The authors investigate whether the local living environment and public facilities are crucial elements explaining individual well-being. To do this, we consider three subjective measures: feeling of well-being, environmental satisfaction and social life satisfaction, which are used as proxies of individual utility. The authors consider different explicative variables representing specificities of EMS in terms of public services (transport, culture and sport), environmental quality perceived as convenient for individual health, safety and security, etc. The authors also provide a test for relative standing by including the median monthly household income at the municipality level.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate compensation and related welfare issues in the case of the expropriation of land for urban redevelopment in China.

A mixed methods quantitative and qualitative approach was selected to undertake the research. This involved a wide ranging qualitative review of the academic and policy literature to explore the relevant arguments and issues, combined with a quantitative regression analysis of survey data collected from research subjects.

The research identified the complex and changeable phenomena of urban village redevelopment in China, and the variable compensation arrangements used. The research found that monthly family income before land expropriation, monthly family expense before expropriation, the location of the housing expropriation and family unit size are important determinants for the property holders chosen methods of compensation. It also found that an increase in family size leads to a decreasing probability that the expropriated farmers choose the single monetary compensation relative to the alternative option of housing compensation. The degree of satisfaction with compensation, changes in monthly family income and expense are found to be significant determinants for changes in life satisfaction.

The research made the following four recommendations based upon the qualitative and quantitative analysis: that local governments should pay closer governance/ political attention to changes in the welfare of the farmers/ villagers whose property has been expropriated; that central and local government should aim to improve the compensation system for rural land and property expropriation, to make the compensation policy be perceived as fairer and more reasonable by citizens; that a broad National standard of compensation be used within a pragmatic locally focussed regime; that the Chinese Central, Provincial and Local governments can devise improved policy tools and make more effective policy interventions by learning from the experiences (both successes and failures) of other countries approaches to this topic. It also suggested that further research be undertaken investigating the multitude of local level policy experiments, as a way of developing better National compensation standards based upon those compensation standards that appear to be working – and have citizen support – at the local level.

The literature review identified recent developments in Chinese urban studies and originally synthesised both recent and longstanding work on the issue of urban villages in China. The research also suggested changes to the National and Local legal and policy framework for compensation cases in urban redevelopment expropriation scenarios.

Mobility has wide‐range impacts on the financial management of property issues, such as consumption and investment. In the literature of residential mobility, household life cycle is widely acknowledged as an important concept. An array of household demographic factors such as age has been repeatedly found to be significant in influencing mobility. Many previous researches offer few verifi able hypotheses or propositions and their results are conflicting. Some of them also suffer methodological inadequacies. This paper is an attempt to rectify this situation. There are two important contributions by the current research. One is a methodology that employs multivariate methods, which fills the gap of previous research. The second contribution is the large census dataset of Hong Kong which is rare in previous studies. The research is conducted under the framework of life cycle models with emphasis on economic and demographic variables of households. Demographic determinants are found to be more important in explaining population mobility among rental households while economic factors are more pertinent for owners. This may be explained by the different strategies adopted by renters and owners in satisfying their housing needs. Renters are envisaged to base their mobility decisions more on demographic factors. Owners, on the other hand, tend to view home buying as an investment as well and hence put more emphasis on economic factors. It is hoped that this research can shed more light on the topic of residential mobility by drawing on the experience of a large population residing in a small place, Hong Kong

In this paper, we examine the concept of “vulnerability” within the context of income mobility of the poor. We test for the dynamics of vulnerable households in the UK using waves 1–12 of the British Household Panel Survey and find that, of three different types of risks that we test for, household-specific shocks and economy-wide aggregate shocks have the greatest impact on consumption, in comparison to shocks to the income stream.

The measurement of women's economic welfare and exploring its underlying factors have been undervalued in the context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This study addressed this gap by focusing on assessing women's subjective economic welfare and its socioeconomic and cultural determinants in the education and health sectors within Mardan, Northern Pakistan.

The study used stratified random sampling techniques for the selection of sample respondents and collected data through a well-structured questionnaire. To measure women’s economic welfare, the study utilizes Lorenz curves, the Gini index, the Sen Social Welfare function and an individual's gross monthly income. Furthermore, the ordinary least squares method was utilized to analyze the determinants of economic welfare.

The findings show greater income inequality and a lower welfare level for women in the education sector compared to the health sector. Likewise, the study identifies several key determinants, such as age, educational qualification, job experience, respect for working women, outside and work-place problems and the suffering of family members of working women for their economic well-being.

This study makes valuable contributions to the literature by focusing on the cultural perspective of Pakhtun women in Mardan and providing a context-specific understanding of subjective economic welfare. Additionally, the authors collected first-hand data, which gave an original outlook on working women's current economic welfare level. Furthermore, this study undertakes a comparative analysis of working women's welfare in the health and education sectors. This comparison offers a more accurate portrayal of the challenges and opportunities specific to these occupations.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2023-0246