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An axiomatic approach is used to propose a measure of extreme poverty which is not only multidimensional in nature, but also recognizes the fact that there are interaction effects between different deprivations, and that the length of time during which deprivations are felt may also have a negative impact on household well-being. The proposed definition of extreme poverty formalizes an approach developed by Joseph Wresinski, the founder of the International Movement ATD Fourth World.

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.

Poverty and informal employment are often regarded as correlated phenomena. Many empirical studies have shown that informal employment has a causal impact on household poverty, mainly through low wages. Yet other studies focus on the reverse causality from poverty to informality, arising from a range of constraints that poverty poses to jobholders. Only recently have empirical researchers tried to study the simultaneous two-way relationship between poverty and informality. However, existing studies have relied upon cross-sectional data and static econometric models.

This chapter takes the next step and studies the dynamics of poverty and informality using longitudinal data. Our empirical analysis is based on a bivariate dynamic random-effect probit model and recent panel data from Argentina. The method used provides a means of assessing the persistence over time of poverty and informal employment at the individual level, while controlling for both observed and unobserved determinants of the two processes. The results show that both poverty and informal employment are highly persistent processes. Moreover, positive spillover effects are found from past poverty on current informal employment and from past informality to current poverty status, corroborating the view that the two processes are also shaped by interrelated dynamics in segmented labor markets.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the combined use of time-use diaries and interviews to get a fuller understanding of how people use their time, the factors that influence their time use, and their subjective perceptions of their time pressures. This paper focuses on how the methodology influenced the findings.

Participants kept a diary of their time use for one week and then participated in interviews to discuss their time use.

While the diaries yielded numerical data about participants’ time use, the interviews revealed the reasons behind their time choices. The complexity of Pakistani food preparation and the presence of in-laws in the home emerged as major factors. All participants expressed frustration with their time poverty.

This was a small pilot study limited to eight participants.

This method gives researchers a more powerful tool for understanding not only how people use their time, but the social, cultural and economic forces behind their choices.

Time poverty creates social inequities, especially among women and marginalized people. The methodology presented allows participants to have a voice in time-use studies and can help policy makers create policies that correct time poverty for disadvantaged groups.

This paper illustrates the usefulness of combining two existing methods for time-use studies in a new way for more powerful results.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of public expenditure on economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries like India. If poverty and inequality are high, the government may resort to distributive policies at the cost of long-term growth. The distributive policies and poverty alleviation measures fail to achieve success due to lack of good governance, lack of proper targeting and problems in the implementation of such schemes. On the other hand, if the nature of public expenditure is such that it enhances per capita income, it will help reduce poverty.

After analytical digression and construction of hypotheses panel regression has been done using state-level data in the Indian context to empirically verify the above propositions. Both Fixed effects and Random effects models have been used for this purpose.

The results show that in states where ratio of public expenditure on the development of infrastructure such as road, irrigation, power, transport and communication is higher, per capita income is also higher and incidence of poverty is lower indicating that economic growth is important for poverty alleviation and development of infrastructure is necessary for growth.

This study demonstrates how public policy and public finance can be used as instruments for removal of poverty.

The study examines the dynamic relationship among globalisation, income inequality and poverty in Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (MINT countries) between 1980 and 2018.

A Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) approach is used as a technique of estimation hanging on the fact that the method uses prior distribution for the estimated parameters.

The results show that globalisation is a strong predictor of itself in all the MINT countries only in the short run. In the long run, income inequality and poverty strongly influence globalisation, respectively, in Indonesia and Turkey, while globalisation still has more impact on itself in Nigeria. Income inequality has a strong endogenous impact on itself in Mexico and Indonesia over the time horizon, whereas globalisation and poverty are strong predictors of income inequality in the long run in Nigeria and Turkey, respectively. Also, poverty strongly influences itself in all the MINT countries in all the periods, meaning that poverty begets itself in all the MINT countries, except for Indonesia in the long run.

The study suggests that all the MINT countries should ensure political stability and a strong institutional framework to gain from the process of globalisation and to experience reductions in the levels of income inequality and poverty.

This study is distinct from other studies in the sense that an overall globalisation index (GBI) as used by Dreher et al. (2008) is used for the globalisation variable, and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is used to capture poverty in all the MINT countries. Also, the research paper uses a BVAR approach as against the classical VAR, and this helps in solving over-fitting problems.

We analyse the determinants of poverty transitions, defined as movements across a low-income threshold, in Luxembourg. Data used are those from the Luxembourg socio-economic panel ‘Liewen zu Lëtzebuerg’ (PSELL3) running from 2003 to 2009. Using an endogenous switching first-order Markov model, we control for potential endogeneity to low-income transitions due to both initial conditions and non-random attrition. We find that employment protects from both remaining poor and entering poverty while several characteristics of the head of the household, such as low education or citizenship, and also household composition and housing tenure status are correlated to poverty entry but not to poverty persistence. In addition, attrition and initial low income are found to be endogenous processes with respect to low-income transitions. Finally, genuine state dependence accounts for a substantial level of aggregate state dependence.

The paper aims to compare applied social policy approaches to child poverty and economic inequality, the latter being mainly operationalised in the UK in terms of social mobility.

The paper considers the theoretical stance underpinning New Labour's approach towards social policy, with particular reference to “individualisation”, and reviews Government strategies towards tackling poverty and economic inequality.

Despite a decade of unprecedented investment, there is an impasse in reducing child poverty and economic inequality has increased. Policy now relies on education as being the clinching factor to break this impasse. Education is vital but education alone will not tip the balance in eradicating poverty. The assumption that education will facilitate social mobility, by serving to position the UK at the high end of the global labour market, fails to address the prevalence of the “low‐pay‐no‐pay” cycle associated with the flexible labour market. Further measures are necessary to ensure that the labour market accommodates the needs of those entering it.

The paper shows that, given the failure of current social policy to address poverty and inequality, especially given that post‐recession conditions are likely to be less favourable than in the last decade, there is an urgent need for bold, new policy thinking. Pinning all hopes on education – and seeing solutions only in terms of individuals' skills and aspirations, without critical consideration of the nature of the labour market – cannot be accepted as the best way forward.

In spite of the War on Poverty programs of the 1960s and the economic boom of the 1990s, poverty remains consistently high among families with children in the USA. The main source of income for these families is employment, which is largely a function of educational attainment. The purpose of this paper is to turn to aggregate and individual level data and demonstrate the power of college education in economic well‐being of women with children.

A nationally representative sample of single and married mothers was retrieved and the role of education in economic well‐being of these women was examined using descriptive, bi‐variate, and multiple ordinal logistic regression.

Both married and single mothers benefit immensely from a bachelors degree.

In recent years, policy makers in the USA have trimmed resources that promote education among poor women with children. This analysis, underscores the importance of postsecondary education in the economic well‐being of mothers with children and therefore the need for social policy promoting college education.

This article shows the power of education on economic well‐being of both married and single women with children.

Post reform India has generated high economic growth, yet progress in income poverty and many other key development outcomes has been modest. This chapter primarily examines how inclusive economic growth has been in India between 2005–2006 and 2015–2016 in reducing multidimensional poverty captured by the global multidimensional poverty index (MPI). The authors employ a constellation of elasticity and semi-elasticity measures to examine vertical, horizontal as well as dimensional inclusiveness of economic growth. Nationally, the authors estimate that a 1% annual economic growth in India during their study period is associated with an annual reduction in MPI of 1.34%. The association of the national growth to state poverty reduction (horizontal inclusiveness) is, however, not uniform. Some states have been successful in reducing poverty faster than the national average despite slower economic growth between 2005–2005 and 2015–2016; whereas, other states have been less successful to do so despite faster economic growth during the same period. The authors’ analyses and findings show how these tools may be used in practical applications to measure inclusive growth and inform policy.