IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v16y2004i8p1089-1107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can a subjective poverty line be applied to China? Assessing poverty among urban residents in 1999

Author

Listed:
  • Björn Gustafsson
  • Li Shi
  • Hiroshi Sato

    (Department of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan)

Abstract

For the first time, subjective poverty line methodology is applied to China. The data refer to 12 cities for the year 1999. A major conclusion is that poverty counts, based on the subjective poverty line, is surprisingly close to those obtained when applying the methodology used when providing official estimates on poverty in urban China. However, the opinions of the general public can differ considerably across cities. Applying the poverty line we find substantial variation across cities in the extent of poverty. Poverty status in urban China is very much related to education level of the household, to life cycle, as well as to labour market status. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Björn Gustafsson & Li Shi & Hiroshi Sato, 2004. "Can a subjective poverty line be applied to China? Assessing poverty among urban residents in 1999," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 1089-1107.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:16:y:2004:i:8:p:1089-1107
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.1127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/jid.1127
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.1127?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Knight, John & Song, Lina, 1999. "The Rural-Urban Divide: Economic Disparities and Interactions in China," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198293309.
    2. Kilpatrick, Robert W, 1973. "The Income Elasticity of the Poverty Line," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(3), pages 327-332, August.
    3. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    4. John Gibson & Jikun Huang & Scott Rozelle, 2003. "Improving Estimates of Inequality and Poverty from Urban China's Household Income and Expenditure Survey," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 49(1), pages 53-68, March.
    5. Menno Pradhan & Martin Ravallion, 2000. "Measuring Poverty Using Qualitative Perceptions Of Consumption Adequacy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(3), pages 462-471, August.
    6. Khan, Azizur Rahman & Riskin, Carl, 2001. "Inequality and Poverty in China in the Age of Globalization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195136494.
    7. Arie Kapteyn & Peter Kooreman & Rob Willemse, 1988. "Some Methodological Issues in the Implementation of Subjective Poverty Definitions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(2), pages 222-242.
    8. Diane Colasanto & Arie Kapteyn & Jacques van der Gaag, 1984. "Two Subjective Definitions of Poverty: Results from the Wisconsin Basic Needs Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 19(1), pages 127-138.
    9. 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.
    10. Park, Albert & Wang, Sangui, 2001. "China's poverty statistics," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 384-398.
    11. Martin Ravallion & Gaurav Datt & Dominique van de Walle, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty In The Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 345-361, December.
    12. Garner, Thesia I & de Vos, Klaas, 1995. "Income Sufficiency v. Poverty: Results from the United States and the Netherlands," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 8(2), pages 117-134, May.
    13. John Knight & Li Shi, 2006. "Three Poverties in Urban China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(3), pages 367-387, August.
    14. Danziger, Sheldon, et al, 1984. "The Direct Measurement of Welfare Levels: How Much Does It Cost to Make Ends Meet?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 500-505, August.
    15. repec:bla:revinw:v:37:y:1991:i:4:p:345-61 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. 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.
    2. Kafle, Kashi & Winter-Nelson, Alex & Goldsmith, Peter, 2016. "Does 25 cents more per day make a difference? The impact of livestock transfer and development in rural Zambia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 62-72.
    3. 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.
    4. Knight, John & Gunatilaka, Ramani, 2012. "Income, aspirations and the Hedonic Treadmill in a poor society," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 67-81.
    5. 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.
    6. Thesia I. Garner & Kathleen Short, 2005. "Economic Well-Being Based on Income, Consumer Expenditures and Personal Assessments of Minimal Needs," Working Papers 381, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    7. Glauben, Thomas & Herzfeld, Thomas & Rozelle, Scott & Wang, Xiaobing, 2012. "Persistent Poverty in Rural China: Where, Why, and How to Escape?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 784-795.
    8. Ravallion, Martin, 2012. "Poor, or just feeling poor ? on using subjective data in measuring poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5968, The World Bank.
    9. Quheng Deng & Bjorn Gustafsson, 2011. "A New Episode of Increased Urban Income Inequality in China," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 201116, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    10. Jehu-Appiah, Caroline & Aryeetey, Genevieve & Spaan, Ernst & Agyepong, Irene & Baltussen, Rob, 2010. "Efficiency, equity and feasibility of strategies to identify the poor: An application to premium exemptions under National Health Insurance in Ghana," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(2-3), pages 166-173, May.

    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. Gustafsson, Björn Anders & Yue, Ximing, 2006. "Rural People’s Perception of Poverty in China," IZA Discussion Papers 2486, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Verónica Amarante & Maira Colacce & Federico Scalese, 2024. "Poverty in Latin America: feelings/perceptions Vs. material conditions," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 24-01, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    3. Tomáš Želinský & Martina Mysíková & Thesia I. Garner, 2022. "Trends in Subjective Income Poverty Rates in the European Union," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2493-2516, October.
    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. Bjorn A Gustafsson & Deng Quheng, 2011. "Di Bao Receipt and Its Importance for Combating Poverty in Urban China," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1), pages 1-32, March.
    6. Brun, Martín & Colacce, Maira, 2019. "Medición de la pobreza monetaria en el Uruguay: conceptos, metodologías, evolución y alternativas," Estudios y Perspectivas – Oficina de la CEPAL en Montevideo 44415, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    7. Appleton, Simon & Song, Lina & Xia, Qingjie, 2010. "Growing out of Poverty: Trends and Patterns of Urban Poverty in China 1988-2002," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 665-678, May.
    8. Whitehouse, Edward, 2000. "How Poor are the Old? A Survey of Evidence from 44 Countries," MPRA Paper 14177, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Thesia I. Garner & Kathleen Short, 2005. "Economic Well-Being Based on Income, Consumer Expenditures and Personal Assessments of Minimal Needs," Working Papers 381, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    10. Pradhan, Menno & Ravallion, Martin, 1998. "Measuring poverty using qualitative perceptions of welfare," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2011, The World Bank.
    11. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen & Prem Sangraula, 2009. "Dollar a Day Revisited," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 23(2), pages 163-184, June.
    12. Tine Stanovnik & Miroslav Verbic, 2004. "Perception of Income Satisfaction: An Analysis of Slovenian Households," HEW 0408003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen, 2011. "Weakly Relative Poverty," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1251-1261, November.
    14. Camelia Minoiu & Sanjay G. Reddy, 2008. "Chinese Poverty: Assessing The Impact Of Alternative Assumptions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(4), pages 572-596, December.
    15. Bjorn Gustafsson & Ximing Yue, 2012. "Rural people's perception of income adequacy in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(3), pages 264-280, August.
    16. Jean-Michel Hourriez & Bernard Legris, 1998. "L'approche monétaire de la pauvreté : méthodologie et résultats," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 308(1), pages 35-63.
    17. Zhang, Chunni & Xu, Qi & Zhou, Xiang & Zhang, Xiaobo & Xie, Yu, 2014. "Are poverty rates underestimated in China? New evidence from four recent surveys," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 410-425.
    18. 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.
    19. Zhou Xun & Michel Lubrano, 2018. "A Bayesian Measure of Poverty in the Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(3), pages 649-678, September.

    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:wly:jintdv:v:16:y:2004:i:8:p:1089-1107. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    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.