Asset Based Poverty and Wealth Accumulation in Low Income Households in Bangladesh

Using HIES 2000 data, the paper presents asset based poverty information so that it is possible to provide incentives in the form of social benefit and fiscal support to the group of people who needs it most. While income based measurements and other methods are available to characterise households under poverty, asset based measurements provide a new insight into poverty and related welfare studies. By applying fractional polynomial regression, it is found that there is a significant relationship between total asset and income. We also find significant results for asset income, profit from enterprises, other assets (including financial asset, jewelry), house value and other income (rent, dividend, interest) in total asset. Meanwhile, variables such as religion, gender of the household head and agricultural income do not significantly affect total asset. People accumulate asset starting from the age of around 20 years which continues until the age of 80 years. The education level of head of the household ranges between class V and class X, when such households move on to higher assets. Except for a few outliers, both asset and income are invested and managed effectively by households to derive return from such investment.