Proposal of a Multidimensional Poverty Index for Spanish Municipalities

There are two objectives that impel this work: first, to propose a valid, reliable, and parsimonious poverty index, named Municipal Poverty Index-Urban Audit (MPI-UA), and second, to describe the evolution of the multidimensional poverty risk of the Spanish municipalities according to C. For the construction of the MPI-UA, the information provided by the URBAN AUDIT database on Spanish municipalities with a population in excess of 20,000 inhabitants has been used. The validated data have been analyzed with the PLS technique to identify the variables that allow the establishment of the MPI-UA, although previously certain variables have had to be transformed. This chapter has valuable implications insofar as there is no known multidimensional poverty index for Spanish municipalities. Moreover, it may be of probable use for academics. In the case of local managers, the index can be useful both for the knowledge of the situation and for the design of public policies to reduce poverty.

Analysis On The Spatial Differentiation Characteristics of Poverty Risk Caused By Disaster Under The Stress of Geological Disasters – A Case Study of Sichuan Province

Research on the poverty risk caused by disasters in disaster - prone areas is a useful exploration to coordinate social economic development with disaster prevention and reduction, and is of great significance to regional sustainable development. Based on statistical data and spatial data, this paper takes Sichuan Province as the typical research area. Remote sensing and geographic information technology are used to study the poverty risk caused by disasters based on the quantitative evaluation of geological disasters risk and regional development level. the spatial differentiation characteristics of poverty risk caused by disasters are explored on the 1 km × 1 km grid scale. The results indicate that: (1) The overall risk of geological disasters in Sichuan Province is relatively high, with high and relatively high risk areas accounting for more than 40%, low and relatively low risk areas accounting for less than 30%. The risks in Mountain and Ravine Areas are significantly higher than other areas. (2) The regional development level in Sichuan Province is relatively high, but with significant the spatial differences. The development level of high-altitude areas and remote mountainous areas is quite different from that of the Chengdu Plain in the middle Sichuan Province. the problem of uneven development in the east, middle, and west is prominent. (3) The poverty risk caused by disasters is high, and the spatial pattern presents a characteristic of “high in the west and low in the east” with high positive spatial correlation. High - High Cluster Areas are mainly distributed in western and southwestern Sichuan. Low - Low Outlier Areas are mainly distributed in Chengdu Plain and Hilly Areas of Sichuan Basin. High - Low Outlier and Low - High Outlier Areas occupy a relatively small percentage with scattered distribution. This paper provides a reference for the coordinated management of disaster prevention and reduction, as well as social and economic development in underdeveloped areas.

Marital Histories and Late-Life Economic Security: Do Social Security Benefits Rules Perpetuate Disparities?

Disparities in late-life economic security persist along the lines of gender, marital status, race, and educational attainment. We propose that these disparities are partly due to the fact that Social Security benefits are structured such that never-married, divorced, and cohabiting persons, those who were widowed prematurely, or were in a dual-earner couple face benefit penalties. Drawing on data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a study that has followed men and women from age 18 (in 1957) through age 72 (in 2011), we examine disparities in Social Security earnings and poverty risk on the basis of gender and marital histories. Our results reveal a large disadvantage for divorced and never-married persons (relative to their married counterparts), with women and those divorced two or more times experiencing the largest toll. We discuss the implications of our results for revamping Social Security to better meet the needs of 21st century families.

THE RISK OF POVERTY OF HOUSEHOLDS WITH PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

The article aims at analysing available statistical data on the poverty risk of households of people with disabilities. The analyses indicate that incomes in households of people with disabilities is largely dependent on social transfers and its dynamics is much lower than in households of people without disabilities. The income level largely protects against extreme poverty, but the exposure to re7lative poverty has been increasing steadily over the last decade. Comparing the structure of expenditure in households of people with and without disabilities, a higher level of expenditure on health-related needs is observed. This is a rationale for a higher threshold of access to family benefits for these households.

Analysing the effects of healthcare payment policies in conjunction with tax-benefit policies: A microsimulation study with real-world healthcare data

In Europe, many people experience financial hardship due to healthcare payments despite (near-)universal healthcare systems. In Finland, as well as in many other countries, austerity has further widened the gaps in coverage through increases in patient payments. However, the distributional analyses of austerity have concentrated on the effects of tax benefit policies alone. We present a method for examining how health payment policies and tax-benefit policies affect household incomes in conjunction, to evaluate the total effect of implemented and planned policies. We linked the national tax-benefit microsimulation model, SISU, and its nationally representative 15% sample of households in Finland in 2017 (n=826,001) with administrative real-world healthcare data (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Care Register for Health Care, HILMO; and Social Insurance Institution of Finland, Kela, National Health Insurance reimbursement registers). As a case example, we analysed the effects on relative poverty risk and poverty gap during two government terms. We found that between 2011 and 2015, tax-benefit policies contributed to decreasing relative poverty, and health payment changes had no measurable effects. In 2015–2019, the poverty risk rate and average gap increased due to tax-benefit policies, and health payment changes strengthened the effects by 10% to 20%. Health payments, and their increases, mainly deteriorated the position of older adults; nevertheless, their poverty risk mostly remained below the population average. Social assistance had an important buffering effect among under 65-year-old population. Health payment increases thus exacerbated the effects of austerity on the oldest age-groups, who, based on tax-benefit analyses alone, were relatively well protected.

Income-dependent equivalence scales: A fresh look at German micro-data

Income inequality and poverty risks receive a lot of attention in public debates and current research. To make income comparable across different types of households, applying the “(modified) OECD scale” – an equivalence scale with fixed weights for each household type – has become a quasi-standard in research. Instead, we derive a base-dependent equivalence scale allowing for scale weights that vary with income, building on micro-data from Germany. Our results suggest that appropriate equivalence scales are much steeper at the lower end of the income distribution than they are for higher income levels. We illustrate our findings by applying them to data on family income differentiated by household types. It turns out that using income-dependent equivalence scales matters for applied research on income inequality, especially if one is concerned with the composition, not just the size of the population at poverty risk.

Analysis of spatial determinants of poverty in Kelantan

This study examines socio-demographic effects on poverty and measures spatial patterns in poverty risk looking for high risk of areas. The poverty data were counts of the numbers of poverty cases occurring in each 66 districts of Kelantan. A Poisson Log Linear Leroux Conditional Autoregressive model with different neighbourhood matrices was fitted to the data. The results show that the contiguity neighbour was performed nearly similar to Delaunay triangulation neighbourhood matrix in estimate poverty risk. Apart from that, the variables average age, number of non-education of household head and number of female household head significantly associated with the number of poor households head. Kursial was found as the highest risk area of poverty among 66 districts in Kelantan.