IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-02080166.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A multidimensional analysis of poverty in China from 1991 to 2006

Author

Listed:
  • Kelly Labart

    (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne)

  • Florent Bresson

    (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UdA - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Most studies have reported non negligible improvements for China in terms of poverty during the last three decades. However, this result is potentially hampered by two limitations. First, it may be contingent to the specific choices made regarding the poverty line and the poverty indices used for the analysis. As a consequence, it may collapse if one uses alternative poverty lines or poverty measures. Second, it results from a focus on the sole monetary aspects of poverty. As income does not cover all facets of well-being and since the relationship between these two concepts are quite fuzzy, it may be worth using a broader view of well-being, hence opting for a multidimensional approach of poverty analysis. In the present paper, these two issues are addressed using multidimensional stochastic dominance procedures on the joint distribution of income, education and health in seven Chinese provinces.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Kelly Labart & Florent Bresson, 2011. "A multidimensional analysis of poverty in China from 1991 to 2006," Post-Print halshs-02080166, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02080166
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2011.08.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Xiaobo & Kanbur, Ravi, 2005. "Spatial inequality in education and health care in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 189-204.
    2. Wan, Guanghua & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2006. "Rising inequality in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 651-653, December.
    3. Whitmore, G A, 1970. "Third-Degree Stochastic Dominance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 457-459, June.
    4. Meng, Xin & Gregory, Robert & Wang, Youjuan, 2005. "Poverty, inequality, and growth in urban China, 1986-2000," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 710-729, December.
    5. Wagstaff, Adam & Lindelow, Magnus & Jun, Gao & Ling, Xu & Juncheng, Qian, 2009. "Extending health insurance to the rural population: An impact evaluation of China's new cooperative medical scheme," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-19, January.
    6. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2013. "Testing for Restricted Stochastic Dominance," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 84-125, January.
    7. Jean-Yves Duclos & David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 943-968, October.
    8. Gustafsson, Bjorn & Shi, Li, 2003. "The Ethnic Minority-Majority Income Gap in Rural China during Transition," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 805-822, July.
    9. Achille Lemmi & Gianni Betti (ed.), 2006. "Fuzzy Set Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, number 978-0-387-34251-1, July.
    10. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    11. Zhang, Yin & Wan, Guanghua, 2006. "The impact of growth and inequality on rural poverty in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 694-712, December.
    12. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    13. Gustafsson, Bjorn & Li, Shi, 2004. "Expenditures on education and health care and poverty in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 292-301.
    14. Nicolas Gravel & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, 2010. "Is India better off today than 15 years ago? A robust multidimensional answer," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 173-195, June.
    15. Foster, James E. & Shorrocks, Anthony F., 1988. "Inequality and poverty orderings," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2-3), pages 654-661, March.
    16. Satya R. Chakravarty & Jacques Silber, 2008. "Measuring Multidimensional Poverty: The Axiomatic Approach," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 11, pages 192-209, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. François Bourguignon & Satya R. Chakravarty, 2019. "The Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty," Themes in Economics, in: Satya R. Chakravarty (ed.), Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance, pages 83-107, Springer.
    18. Fang, Cheng & Zhang, Xiaobo & Fan, Shenggen, 2002. "Emergence of urban poverty and inequality in China: evidence from household survey," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 430-443, December.
    19. repec:bla:jecsur:v:11:y:1997:i:2:p:123-62 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Jean-Yves Duclos & David Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons with Discrete Indicators of Well-being," Cahiers de recherche 0628, CIRPEE.
    21. Kelly Labart & Jean-Louis Arcand, 2008. "Santé et salaires : une estimation en variables instrumentales sur un panel de travailleurs chinois," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 186(5), pages 89-100.
    22. repec:bla:jecsur:v:14:y:2000:i:4:p:427-66 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Kakwani, Nanak, 1993. "Statistical Inference in the Measurement of Poverty," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(4), pages 632-639, November.
    24. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2000. "Statistical Inference for Stochastic Dominance and for the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1435-1464, November.
    25. Zhang, Junsen & Zhao, Yaohui & Park, Albert & Song, Xiaoqing, 2005. "Economic returns to schooling in urban China, 1988 to 2001," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 730-752, December.
    26. GOH, Chor-ching & LUO, Xubei & ZHU, Nong, 2009. "Income growth, inequality and poverty reduction: A case study of eight provinces in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 485-496, September.
    27. Yélé Maweki Batana & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2010. "Comparing Multidimensional Poverty with Qualitative Indicators of Well-Being," Cahiers de recherche 1004, CIRPEE.
    28. Kakwani, Nanak, 1980. "On a Class of Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(2), pages 437-446, March.
    29. Foster, James E & Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1991. "Subgroup Consistent Poverty Indices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 687-709, May.
    30. Buhong Zheng, 1997. "Aggregate Poverty Measures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 123-162, June.
    31. Connelly, Rachel & Zheng, Zhenzhen, 2003. "Determinants of school enrollment and completion of 10 to 18 year olds in China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 379-388, August.
    32. Sen, Amartya, 1983. "Poor, Relatively Speaking," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 153-169, July.
    33. A. B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon, 1982. "The Comparison of Multi-Dimensioned Distributions of Economic Status," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(2), pages 183-201.
    34. Robert B. Wallace & A. Regula Herzog, 1995. "Overview of the Health Measures in the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30, pages 84-107.
    35. Sen, Amartya, 1985. "A Sociological Approach to the Measurement of Poverty: A Reply [Poor, Relatively Speaking]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 669-676, December.
    36. Foster, James E & Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1988. "Poverty Orderings," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(1), pages 173-177, January.
    37. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2007. "China's (uneven) progress against poverty," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 1-42, January.
    38. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    39. HO, Lok Sang, 1995. "Market reforms and China's health care system," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1065-1072, October.
    40. Kai-yuen Tsui, 2002. "Multidimensional poverty indices," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 19(1), pages 69-93.
    41. Jean-Yves Duclos & David Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Spatial Poverty Comparisons in Ghana, Madagascar, and Uganda," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 91-113.
    42. Christine Chambaz & Eric Maurin, 1998. "Atkinson And Bourguignon'S Dominance Criteria: Extended And Applied To The Measurement Of Poverty In France," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 44(4), pages 497-513, December.
    43. Guanghua Wan, 2007. "Understanding Regional Poverty And Inequality Trends In China: Methodological Issues And Empirical Findings," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(1), pages 25-34, March.
    44. Hannum, Emily & Wang, Meiyan, 2006. "Geography and educational inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 253-265.
    45. Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), 2008. "Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-58235-4.
    46. Haiyong Liu, 2008. "The China health and nutrition survey: an important database for poverty and inequality research," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(4), pages 373-376, December.
    47. Kaur, Amarjot & Prakasa Rao, B.L.S. & Singh, Harshinder, 1994. "Testing for Second-Order Stochastic Dominance of Two Distributions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(5), pages 849-866, December.
    48. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin & Wang, Youjuan, 2006. "Di Bao : a guaranteed minimum income in urban China?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3805, The World Bank.
    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. Mario Biggeri & Luca Bortolotti & Vincenzo Mauro, 2021. "The Analysis of Well‐Being Using the Income‐Adjusted Multidimensional Synthesis of Indicators: The Case of China☆," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(3), pages 684-704, September.
    2. Kanwal Zahra & Tasneem Zafar, 2015. "Marginality as a Root Cause of Urban Poverty: A Case Study of Punjab," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 629-650.
    3. Guo, Junping & Qu, Song, 2021. "Multidimensional and Relative Poverty in Rural China: Evidence from Micro-Level Data of 6145 Households," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315040, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Ke-Mei Chen & Chao-Hsien Leu & Te-Mu Wang, 2019. "Measurement and Determinants of Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from Taiwan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 459-478, September.
    5. Gustafsson, Björn Anders & Sai, Ding, 2019. "Growing into Relative Income Poverty: Urban China 1988 to 2013," IZA Discussion Papers 12422, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Jing You & Sangui Wang & Laurence Roope, 2014. "Multi-dimensional Intertemporal Poverty in Rural China," CSAE Working Paper Series 2014-36, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    7. Zhaorunqing Liu & Wenxin Liu, 2021. "Spatial-Temporal Relationship between Water Resources and Economic Development in Rural China from a Poverty Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Jing Yang & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya, 2019. "Is the ADB’s Conjecture on Upward Trend in Poverty for China Right? An Analysis of Income and Multidimensional Poverty in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(2), pages 451-477, June.
    9. Jifei Zhang & Chunyan Liu & Craig Hutton & Hriday Lal Koirala, 2018. "Geographical Dynamics of Poverty in Nepal between 2005 and 2011: Where and How?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, June.
    10. Xinhua Qi & Shilin Ye & Yecheng Xu & Jing Chen, 2022. "Uneven dynamics and regional disparity of multidimensional poverty in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 169-189, January.
    11. Keming Huang & Fangzhou Xia, 2023. "Classification of Rural Relative Poverty Groups and Measurement of the Influence of Land Elements: A Questionnaire-Based Analysis of 23 Poor Counties in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, April.
    12. Jing You & Sangui Wang & Laurence Roope, 2018. "Intertemporal deprivation in rural china: income and nutrition," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(1), pages 61-101, March.
    13. Zhang, Zhao & Ma, Caoyuan & Wang, Aiping, 2021. "A longitudinal study of multidimensional poverty in rural China from 2010 to 2018," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    14. Björn Gustafsson & Ding Sai, 2020. "Growing into Relative Income Poverty: Urban China, 1988–2013," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 73-94, January.
    15. Sabina Alkire & Yingfeng Fang, 2019. "Dynamics of Multidimensional Poverty and Uni-dimensional Income Poverty: An Evidence of Stability Analysis from China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 25-64, February.
    16. Georgina Davie & Mark Wang & Sarah Rogers & Jie Li, 2021. "Targeted Poverty Alleviation in China: A Typology of Official–Household Relations," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(3), pages 244-263, July.
    17. Guo, Junping & Qu, Song & Zhu, Tiehui, 2022. "Estimating China’s relative and multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from micro-level data of 6145 rural households," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    18. Wang, Jinxian & Wang, Chen & Li, Sihao & Luo, Zhi, 2021. "Measurement of relative welfare poverty and its impact on happiness in China: Evidence from CGSS," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

    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. James E. Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Poverty Measures: Twenty-Five Years Later," Working Papers 2010-14, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    2. James Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures: 25 years later," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(4), pages 491-524, December.
    3. Yélé Batana, 2013. "Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty Among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 337-362, June.
    4. Dipesh Gangopadhyay & Robert B. Nielsen & Velma Zahirovic-Herbert, 2021. "Methodology and Axiomatic Characterization of a Multidimensional and Fuzzy Measure of Deprivation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 1-37, January.
    5. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & François Maniquet, 2019. "Multidimensional poverty measurement with individual preferences," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(1), pages 29-49, March.
    6. Branko Milanovic & Mauricio Apablaza & Florent Bresson & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2016. "When More Does Not Necessarily Mean Better: Health-Related Illfare Comparisons with Non-Monotone Well-Being Relationships," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62, pages 145-178, August.
    7. Malokele Nanivazo, 2015. "First Order Dominance Analysis: Child Wellbeing in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 235-255, May.
    8. Sabina Alkire, 2011. "Multidimensional Poverty and its Discontents," OPHI Working Papers 46, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    9. Vivien Kana Zeumo & Blaise Some & Alexis Tsoukiàs, 2011. "A survey on Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: a Decision Aiding Perspective," Working Papers hal-00875525, HAL.
    10. Christophe Muller & Asha Kannan & Roland Alcindor, 2016. "Multidimensional Poverty in Seychelles," Working Papers halshs-01264444, HAL.
    11. Alkire, Sabina & Santos, Maria Emma, 2014. "Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 251-274.
    12. M. Azhar Hussain & Nikolaj Siersbæk & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2020. "Multidimensional welfare comparisons of EU member states before, during, and after the financial crisis: a dominance approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 55(4), pages 645-686, December.
    13. Higgins, Sean & Lustig, Nora, 2016. "Can a poverty-reducing and progressive tax and transfer system hurt the poor?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 63-75.
    14. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Sahn, David E. & Younger, Stephen D., 2011. "Partial multidimensional inequality orderings," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 225-238.
    15. Jean‐Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi, 2004. "Restricted and Unrestricted Dominance for Welfare, Inequality, and Poverty Orderings," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(1), pages 145-164, February.
    16. Sami Bibi, 2004. "Comparing Multidimensional Poverty between Egypt and Tunisia," Cahiers de recherche 0416, CIRPEE.
    17. Satya R. Chakravarty & Pietro Muliere, 2004. "Welfare indicators: a review and new perspectives. 2. Measurement of poverty," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(2), pages 247-281.
    18. Jean-Yves Duclos & David Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Spatial Poverty Comparisons in Ghana, Madagascar, and Uganda," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 91-113.
    19. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 476-487, August.
    20. Sean Higgins & Nora Lustig, 2015. "Can Poverty-Reducing and Progressive Tax and Transfer System Hurt the Poor?," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1333, Tulane University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:hal:journl:halshs-02080166. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.