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

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  • 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.

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  • 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
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    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).
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    4. 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).
    5. 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.
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    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. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Alem, Yonas & Demeke, Eyoual, 2020. "The persistence of energy poverty: A dynamic probit analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. 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).

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