AbstractThis article considers the relationship between poverty in Rangoon and the ways in which both an imperial and a post-imperial urbanism helped 'improve', develop, and reclaim Rangoon's urban environment. Examining the actions of the Rangoon Development Trust before and after the Second World War in the context of actions taken by the Bombay Improvement Trust, Bombay Development Directorate, Singapore Improvement Trust, and Hong Kong Housing Authority, it both analyses measures taken in Rangoon and constructs a connective history of urban development in relation to other Asian port cities. Incorporating documents released only in 2014 by the National Archives of Myanmar, this analysis for the first time considers interventions made in Rangoon's post-war built environment of poverty, connecting these actions to policies constructed over the preceding decades.
Basic income has garnered a great deal of attention in recent years. This surge in interest stems from growing income disparities, the failures of existing minimum income programmes, shifts in labour market dynamics and numerous global basic income pilot initiatives. Yet realising the successful implementation of a basic income requires a sustained and comprehensive effort. This research contributes to this imperative by presenting an unprecedented microsimulation analysis of the economic viability of introducing a basic income in the Basque Country. The study introduces two economically sustainable and coherent basic income models that not only effectively eliminate poverty but also generate redistributive effects. These outcomes would position the Basque Country as a region with lower income inequality than any European Union (EU) member state. This article underscores the transformative potential of basic income in the Basque Country and offers valuable insights for policy makers contemplating similar initiatives in other regions or nations.
Cet essai propose une analyse critique des enjeux et politiques concernant les structures sociales, la culture et l'autonomie des individus dans l'étude des questions raciales et de la pauvreté urbaine dans la sociologie américaine contemporaine. ; This essay proposes a critical analysis of issues, evidence and policy perspectives pertaining to social structure, culture and agency in the study of race and urban poverty in contemporary American sociology.
This paper presents the overall status, characteristics, and policy framework of the housing sector and the initiatives towards energy efficiency in residential buildings in Belgium in order to assess the market demand for EuroPACE - an on-tax financing scheme for home retrofits. In fact, there are over 5 million residential buildings in Belgium. In 2015, the construction of new buildings represented 44% of the building stock, while renovated buildings accounted for 56%. Moreover, there is a high degree of transformation of old buildings - office buildings or commercial buildings - into residential dwellings. What is also important is that Belgium is a largely urbanised country, with over 83% of the population living in urban areas. Furthermore, 62% of the building stock was built before 1970, and only 41% of dwellings have wall insulation, 36% have fully double-glazed windows, and 58% have roof insulation. These poor insulation figures show that the need for the renovation of the building stock is high. What is more, energy prices are among the highest in the EU and 20% of Belgians are experiencing energy poverty. About 22% of the total energy consumption of the country comes from buildings. To push this renovation further, Belgium must overcome a few barriers - notably financial and technical - before achieving energy efficiency in residential buildings. Barriers related to lack of interest from the authorities are not as significant, as the country and its three regions (the Flemish Region - or Flanders, the Brussels-Capital Region, and the Walloon Region - or Wallonia), which are responsible for the development and implementation of housing and Energy efficiency policies, seem committed to implement initiatives for energy efficiency adapter to local conditions and challenges. For instance, financial support measures such as green certificates, housing bonuses, and renovation premiums aim at boosting energy efficiency in existing buildings. In order to achieve its main objective, this paper analyses the residential building stock (age, size, quality, value, ownership, amount, as well as practical details relative to housing), the characteristics of its users (household composition, income level, and division between urban/rural areas, among others), the characteristics of its energy spending and production (energy price, sources, building energy levels, and energy poverty, among others), as well as the different initiatives and policies implemented at the national and regional level to reduce energy consumption and encourage owners to invest in more energy efficient options when buying or renovating their dwelling. The conclusion of the paper presents a brief Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the housing sector in order to evaluate the feasibility of an on-tax financing scheme such as the one proposed by EuroPACE.
Although there is now a large body of literature on poverty in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, there remains a dearth of comparative analysis of child poverty and wellbeing. This article uses household survey microdata for the period 2001–2003 to compare absolute poverty, relative poverty, material deprivation and participation in schooling among children in five countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan. The analysis shows that low absolute levels of household consumption are associated with other deprivation indicators and with children's participation in schooling. The article also highlights the usefulness of relative poverty measures that effectively identify children at risk of exclusion in even the poorest countries in the region. The article concludes by arguing that household consumption is a good indicator of child poverty and deprivation in the region, and that relative poverty measures should be more widely used in monitoring global targets for poverty reduction.
In der Forschung über die intergenerationelle Transmission von Armut wird vornehmlich davon ausgegangen, dass Biografien weitgehend durch das in der Kindheit Erlernte festgelegt sind. Nur sehr wenige Arbeiten werden von der Annahme geleitet, dass Erfahrungen in wechselseitigen Aushandlungsprozessen konserviert, aber auch transformiert werden, und dies auch noch im Erwachsenenalter. Entsprechend selten richtet sich der Fokus von Untersuchungen auch direkt auf die intergenerationalen Beziehungen und Interaktionen. In diesem Beitrag soll auf der Grundlage eigener methodischer Erfahrungen und erster empirischer Befunde argumentiert werden, wie wichtig und sinnvoll eine derartige Forschungsperspektive sein kann, und zwar nicht nur theoretisch, sondern auch methodologisch. So eröffnen zwar Studien, die auf die Generationenbeziehungen fokussieren, tiefe Einblicke in die Prozesse der Aushandlung von Werten und Lebensstilen. Durch ihre Konzentration auf Einzelinterviews kommt jedoch auch hier die Permanenz und Wechselseitigkeit der Transmission eher nicht in den Blick. Demgegenüber können familiengeschichtliche Gruppengespräche, in denen Eltern und ihre erwachsenen Kinder ihre Geschichte gemeinsam verhandeln, zeigen, dass Armut weniger ein früh fixiertes und undurchdringliches Erbe als vielmehr ein lebenslang in Familien immer wieder neu verhandelter Gegenstand ist.
To rationalize federal cutbacks in spending for public welfare, President Reagan charged that public welfare programs are responsible for leading to a "national tragedy involving family breakdown, teen‐age illegitimacy and worsening poverty." Yet analysis of 1980 and 1982 census data for the 50 states suggests that if this is so, it is because of low, not high, spending for public welfare. While low state spending for public welfare is predictive of high teen illegitimacy rates and directly linked to high state poverty and divorce rates, higher state spending for public welfare is predictive of lower teen birth rates, and linked to lower rates of family breakup and poverty. Despite limitations inherent in the analysis, the findings challenge the contention that spending for public welfare contributes to family breakup, teen illegitimacy and poverty.
The concept and practices of accountability enjoy considerable interest today, not least due to the World Development Report WDR 2004 on service delivery, which formulated the ëtriangle of accountabilityí - specifying relations between the poor, service providers, policy makers and politicians. This paper explores accountability starting from realities faced by the poor across countries and diverse institutional contexts. It is postulated that, even while the WDR does acknowledge the importance of clientelism and the risk of politicisation of policy, there is insufficient recognition ñ especially for the poor and women, but not limited to them- of the power dimensions of accountability, institutionalised inequalities and low claim making powers, access problems and the importance of bribes to get things done. Such issues undermine accountability mechanisms in what may be called ëmoderní or formal institutional settings. The question arises as to whether there are well performing accountability mechanisms in more traditional/ëindigenousí or informal institutions and settings, where people may (still) rely on or build on well established and culturally rooted accountability practices. This paper is an initial exploration and analysis of accountability mechanisms in a sample of 22 ëmoderní, ëindigenous/traditionalí or ëmixedí institutions - and attempts to identify patterns of mechanisms that seem to be effective, and to assess conditions that may be conducive to effective accountability arrangements.
The study aims at analyzing the framework of NAPEP inorder to ascertain the impact of the programme on the people of Giwa local government area of Kaduna State as it affects the wellbeing of the people in improving their standard of living vis-à-vis poverty eradication. Purposeful and simple random sampling technique was used to sample 220 respondents in the study area. Data was collected from the respondents using the interview schedule and a total of 179 questionnaires were used for the analysis. The principal results of the study reveal the failure of poverty alleviation programmes with special reference to NAPEP in Giwa local government area. Hence this study therefore recommends that NAPEP as an agency of the government with the sole aim of coordinating all poverty alleviation efforts in the country should work in harmony with other ministries and agencies that are stakeholders in the fight against poverty; the provision of credit facilities and skills training should be one of the central focus in poverty eradication and Government should adopt a holistic approach to poverty alleviation in the country.
It is not only immigration and the incorporation of immigrants into society that serve as challenges for post-industrialised countries, but also rising inequality and poverty. This article focuses on both issues and proposes a new theoretical perspective on the determinants of immigrant poverty. Building on comparative welfare state research and international migration literature, I argue that immigrants' social rights – here understood as their access to paid employment and welfare benefits – condition the impact which both the labour market and welfare system have on immigrants' poverty. The empirical analysis is based on a newly collected dataset on immigrants' social rights in 19 advanced industrialised countries. The findings confirm the hypotheses: more regulated minimum wage setting institutions and generous traditional family programmes reduce immigrants' poverty more strongly in countries where they are granted easier access to paid employment and social benefits.
According to the researchers, the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of government spending on poverty rates in Nigeria. Several issues of the Central Bank of Nigeria's statistics bulletin were used in the research, which yielded a large amount of data. The data was submitted to a unit root test, which was performed using the Augmented Dickey fuller (ADF) method, in order to determine its time series characteristics. The variables' socioeconomic characteristics were obtained via the use of descriptive statistics. Because of the varying order of integration seen in the unit root, cointegration and regression analysis were carried out utilizing the ARDL- Autoregressive Distributed Lag method, which is an acronym for Autoregressive Distributed Lag. The results of the study revealed that the crucial t-value of 2.185498 is more than the t-statistic value of 2.185498 by a factor of two (2.0). Additionally, the result of 0.0377 is less than the cutoff value of 0.05. According to the findings of the research, capital expenditure has a significant impact on the poverty rate. According to the study, more capital investment in the following areas is recommended: education, electricity generation, economic services, and health. It also recommends that resources be effectively managed.
This article examines the impact of government budget allocations (in per capita units) on inequality and poverty by single household level covered in 75 provinces. The study was based on in-depth analysis of the dynamics of government expenditures and other factors such as inflation, gross provincial product (GPP) and unemployment to the two main welfare indicators (inequality and poverty). The study applied panel data analysis on the provincial level. The results showed that government budget allocations per capita from each ministry can alleviate inequality to some extent; likewise, they can also reduce the poverty rate. Also, if other factors are considered, higher inflation in Thailand leads to higher inequality. This study can serve as guidance for the Thai government; research in more depth and detail could serve as a starting point for determining which government expenditures and programmes should be focused on more as investments to relieve inequality and poverty.
Poverty and inequality are undoubtedly the two major challenges facing the new global world. The recent spurt in growth rate around all spectrum of the global world has intrinsically not resulted in such expected outcomes (declining poverty and income inequality). What we have witnessed however is a growing global world accompanied by poverty and income inequality. This study decomposed growth into two distinct categories: agricultural and non-agricultural growth. Thus, this research set out to re-visit the growth theory in an attempt to further investigate the dynamics of growth in the Western part of Africa and to pin-point the resultant effect of the growth model of this part of the world on poverty and income inequality. The research used a 5-year moving average panel data of 13 West African countries from 1970-2015. Results showed a dynamic growth from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector, but no dynamic growth from the non-agricultural sector to the agricultural sector. In addition, the dynamic results of income inequality and poverty have revealed that political stability, education, and non-agricultural growth are essential to reducing the gap in poverty. Agricultural growth, however, is the key player in achieving poverty reduction. ; Yoksulluk ve eşitsizlik küresel yeni dünyanın karşılaştığı iki ana sorunudur. Klasik ekonomistler, çarpan etkisinden dolayı ekonomik büyümedeki artışın, yoksulluk ve gelir eşitsizliğini azaltacağı görüşündedir. Bununla birlikte, küresel dünyanın genelinde görülen büyüme oranındaki artış, beklenidiği gibi bir sonuç (yoksulluk ve gelir eşitsizliğinin azalması) yaratmamıştır. Ancak tanık olunan, artan bir yoksulluk ve gelir eşitsizliği ile birlikte büyüyen ve küreselleşen bir dünyadır. Bu araştırmada ekonomik büyüme tarım ve tarım dışı büyüme olarak iki farklı şekilde ele alınmıştır. Bu ayırım, iki sektörden hangisinin yoksulluğun ve gelir eşitsizliğinin azaltılmasında dinamik olarak etkili olduğunu tespit etmek için yapılmıştır. Bundan dolayı, bu araştırmada, Batı Afrika ülkelerinde büyüme teorisi çerçevesinde büyümenin dinamiklerini araştırmak ve bu ülkelerde, kurulan büyüme modeli ile büyümenin yoksulluk ve gelir eşitsizliği üzerindeki etkilerini belirlemek amaçlanmıştır. Bu araştırmada 1970-2015 yılları arasında 13 Batı Afrika ülkesine ait panel verileri kullanılmıştır. Bu ülkelerin ekonomik büyüme, yoksulluk ve gelir eşitsizliği düzeyini etkileyen makro ekonomik değişkenlerin beşer yıllık hareketli ortalamaları kullanılarak analiz yapılmıştır. Dinamik büyüme modeli sonuçları tarım sektöründen tarım dışı sektöre doğru büyümenin olduğunu, tarım dışı sektörden tarım sektörüne dinamik bir büyüme olmadığını göstermiştir. Ayrıca, gelir eşitsizliği ve yoksulluğu ilişkin dinamik modellerin sonuçları, siyasi istikrarın, eğitimin ve tarım dışı büyümenin yoksulluk açığını azaltmada önemsiz olduğunu, ancak yoksulluğun azaltılmasında tarımsal büyümenin en önemli etken olduğunu ortaya koymuştur.
