I32 - Measurement and Analysis of PovertyNávrat zpět

The importance of working poverty increased in 2003, owing to the European strategy in which one of the goals was to reduce the number of working people in poverty in the EU. Despite its seriousness, experts have not achieved a uniform theoretical model or definition. The situation is the same for methodology and empirics, which are determined by availability of statistical data. For these reasons, knowledge of working poverty is in its infancy. Therefore, we set a goal to take into account findings from past research into working poverty in the world, focusing primarily on the situation in Slovakia. Based on EU SILC 2016 data, we created our own model of variables in which we assumed that they determine the genesis and manifestations of working poverty in its particular structural components and we measured their intensity using the logistic regression and the decision tree model.

The paper analyzes the theory and construction of four indicators of pro-poor growth and applies them to Bangladesh over two time periods, 2000-2005 and 2005-2010. The following indicators were used: pro-poor growth index (Kakwani and Pernia, 2000), poverty equivalent growth rate (Kakwani and Son, 2008), poverty growth curve (Son, 2004), and the rate of pro-poor growth (Ravallion and Chen, 2003). Applied to Bangladesh, the results of the four indicators mostly point in the same direction. While the conditions for the pro-poor growth in the strict (relative) sense were rarely met, all the indicators suggest there was a certain degree of pro-poor element in the growth process. However, there were noticeable differences between the two periods. In the first period, the growth led to a faster reduction in absolute poverty while inequality increased, whereas in the second period the poor benefited relatively more from growth but the reduction of poverty was less pronounced (since the growth in the mean income was lower in the second period). The results also show that the relatively richer part of the poor population (those not far below the poverty line) benefited more from the growth process than the poorest of the poor.

It is always difficult to define the one and only measure of poverty, as there are different concepts of poverty based on a number of welfare indicators. The paper discuses main approaches to individual welfare measurement. A measure of individual welfare in the concept of relative deprivation is proposed. Three dimensions of relative deprivation are considered (economic strain, inability to afford certain items, and housing). The measure is based on multiplicative approach and thus is more sensitive to changes and differences in data than measures based on additive approach. The measure reflects the complex nature of households' relative deprivation and is applied to Slovak EU SILC 2005 - 2008 microdata in order to analyze the level of poverty in Slovakia in the concept of relative deprivation. Three different poverty lines are applied to the data and results are compared. Level of poverty in terms of relative deprivation is decreasing in Slovakia over time. Using the proposed approach, the results strongly depend on the number of components included in each dimension, as well as the components itself. In accordance with economic changes in the society, in the further research reappraisal of certain components could be a matter of discussion in order to reflect the present situation.

There is hardly any bigger economic tragedy than poor economic development of sub-Saharan Africa. The persistent character of its slow growth or even decline is not possible to explain when using standard growth theories and cross-coutry data. We have suggested a classification framework for existing theories and it allowed us to show that all these approaches (despite their broadness and different policy implications) assume that people's preferences everywhere in the world can be embodied in Homo oeconomicus concept. Growth incompatible behavior is then explained by unfavorable environment being it geography, colonial legacy or bad policy environment. Our aim is to highlight that current concepts omit the possible heterogeneity of people resulting from very poor education level, cultural differences and health conditions. In our view, explanation of African specific behavioral patterns can contribute to deeper understanding, why there is lack of investments and lack of specialization; and why economic growth has been largely missing in sub-Saharan Africa.