IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v43y2015i1p20-43.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Poverty Persistence and Intra-Household Heterogeneity in Occupations: Evidence from Urban Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Yonas Alem

Abstract

Previous studies of poverty in developing countries have to a great extent focussed on the characteristics of the household head and used these as proxies for the underlying ability of the household to generate income. This paper uses five rounds of panel data to investigate the persistence of poverty in urban Ethiopia, with a particular focus on the role of intra-household heterogeneity in occupations. Dynamic probit and system generalised method of moments regression results suggest that international remittances and labour market status of non-head household members are important determinants of households' poverty status. Results also show that controlling for these variables and the "initial conditions problem" encountered in nonlinear dynamic probit models reduces the magnitude of estimated poverty persistence significantly for urban Ethiopia. These findings have important implications for identifying the poor and formulating effective poverty reduction and targeting strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Yonas Alem, 2015. "Poverty Persistence and Intra-Household Heterogeneity in Occupations: Evidence from Urban Ethiopia," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 20-43, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:43:y:2015:i:1:p:20-43
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2014.944123
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13600818.2014.944123
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13600818.2014.944123?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Hill, Ruth Vargas & Smith, Lisa C. & Wiesmann, Doris M. & Frankenberger, Tim & Gulati, Kajal & Quabili, Wahidand & Yohannes, Yisehac, 2007. "The world's most deprived: Characteristics and causes of extreme poverty and hunger," 2020 vision discussion papers 43, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. repec:pru:wpaper:42 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Hill, Ruth Vargas & Smith, Lisa C. & Wiesmann, Doris M. & Frankenberger, Tim & Gulati, Kajal & Quabili, Wahidand & Yohannes, Yisehac, 2007. "The world's most deprived: Characteristics and causes of extreme poverty and hunger [In Chinese]," 2020 vision discussion papers 43Ch, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Anna Giraldo & Enrico Rettore & Ugo Trivellato, 2002. "The persistence of poverty: true state dependence or unobserved heterogeneity? Some evidence from the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 B2-1, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    5. Giles, John & Murtazashvili, Irina, 2010. "A control function approach to estimating dynamic probit models with endogenous regressors, with an application to the study of poverty persistence in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5400, The World Bank.
    6. Julian May & Ingrid Woolard & Bob Baulch, 2011. "Poverty Traps and Structural Poverty in South Africa: Reassessing the Evidence from KwaZulu-Natal, 1993 to 2004," Chapters, in: Bob Baulch (ed.), Why Poverty Persists, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. You, Kefei & Bianco, Silvia Dal & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph, 2020. "Closing Technological Gaps to Alleviate Poverty: Evidence from 17 Sub-Saharan African Countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    2. Dula Etana & Degefa Tolossa, 2017. "Unemployment and Food Insecurity in Urban Ethiopia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 56-68, March.
    3. Alem, Yonas & Demeke, Eyoual, 2020. "The Persistence of Energy Poverty: A Dynamic Probit Analysis," EfD Discussion Paper 20-16, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    4. Prieto Suarez, Joaquin, 2021. "Poverty traps and affluence shields: modelling the persistence of income position in Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110719, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Joaquín Prieto, 2021. "Poverty traps and affluence shields: Modelling the persistence of income position in Chile," Working Papers 576, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Alem, Yonas & Demeke, Eyoual, 2020. "The persistence of energy poverty: A dynamic probit analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    7. Martey, Edward & Etwire, Prince M. & Atinga, David, 2021. "To attend or not to attend: Examining the relationship between food hardship, school attendance and education expenditure," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Soviadan, Mawussi Kossivi & Kubik, Zaneta & Enete, Anselm Anibueze & Okoye, Chukwuemeka Uzoma, 2022. "Assessing the adoption rates of improved technology in traditional poultry farming: evidence from rural Togo," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(3), pages 206-223.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alem, Yonas, 2014. "Poverty Persistence and Intra-Household Heterogeneity in Occupations: Some Evidence from Ethiopia," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-05-efd, Resources for the Future.
    2. Alem, Yonas, 2013. "Poverty Persistence and Intra-Household Heterogeneity in Occupations: Evidence from Urban Ethiopia," Working Papers in Economics 580, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Timler, Carl & Alvarez, Stéphanie & DeClerck, Fabrice & Remans, Roseline & Raneri, Jessica & Estrada Carmona, Natalia & Mashingaidze, Nester & Abe Chatterjee, Shantonu & Chiang, Tsai Wei & Termote, Ce, 2020. "Exploring solution spaces for nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Kenya and Vietnam," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Scott, Lucy, 2014. "Transfers for extreme poverty reduction: Implications for patron-client relationships in the context of Bangladesh's agricultural reformation," WIDER Working Paper Series 029, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Bonilla, Eugenio Diaz, 2008. "Global macroeconomic developments and poverty:," IFPRI discussion papers 766, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Halkos, George & Gkampoura, Eleni-Christina, 2021. "Where do we stand on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals? An overview on progress," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 94-122.
    7. Kotu, Bekele & Admassie, Assefa, 2015. "Potential impact of improved varieties on poverty reduction: a case study of selected cereal crops in two districts of Ethiopia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212013, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Wiesmann, Doris & Bassett, Lucy & Benson, Todd & Hoddinott, John, 2009. "Validation of the world food programme's food consumption score and alternative indicators of household food security:," IFPRI discussion papers 870, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Sikka, Prem, 2010. "Smoke and mirrors: Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 153-168.
    10. Agnes Quisumbing & Bob Baulch & Neha Kumar, 2011. "Evaluating the long-term impact of anti-poverty interventions in Bangladesh: an overview," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 153-174.
    11. Golam Rasul & Prem Manandhar, 2009. "Prospects and Problems in Promoting Tourism in South Asia," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 10(1), pages 187-207, January.
    12. Derek Headey & Shenggen Fan, 2008. "Anatomy of a crisis: the causes and consequences of surging food prices," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(s1), pages 375-391, November.
    13. Tomkins Alan J., 2012. "Combating Food Shortages in Least Developed Countries: Current Development Assistance Approaches," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 27-55, December.
    14. Amigun, Bamikole & Musango, Josephine Kaviti & Stafford, William, 2011. "Biofuels and sustainability in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 1360-1372, February.
    15. Malek, Mohammad Abdul & Gatzweiler, Franz W. & Von Braun, Joachim, 2017. "Identifying technology innovations for marginalized smallholders-A conceptual approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 48-56.
    16. Serra, Renata. & Botti, Fabrizio., 2011. "Walking on a tightrope : balancing MF financial sustainability and poverty orientation in Mali," ILO Working Papers 994643223402676, International Labour Organization.
    17. Renuka Mahadevan & Sandy Suardi, 2014. "Regional Differences Pose Challenges for Food Security Policy: A Case Study of India," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1319-1336, August.
    18. Ming Liu & Sumner LaCroix, 2011. "The Impact of Stronger Property Rights in Pharmaceuticals on Innovation in Developed and Developing Countries," Working Papers 201116, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    19. Sangeetha Madhavan & Shelley Clark & Sara Schmidt, 2021. "Single mothers coping with food insecurity in a Nairobi slum," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2703-2720, October.
    20. Graw, Valerie & Husmann, Christine Ladenburger, 2012. "Mapping Marginality Hotspots – Geographical Targeting for Poverty Reduction," Working Papers 147917, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:43:y:2015:i:1:p:20-43. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.