IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/sticas/020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Welfare in Transition: Trends in Poverty and Well-being in Central Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Jane Falkingham

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the transition on living standards and welfare in the five Republics of former Soviet Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, along with the Republic of Azerbaijan. A broad definition of welfare is taken, including both economic measures and capability-based indicators, reflecting the health and education of the population. The picture that emerges is of a regional population facing severe economic, physical and psycho-social stress. Over half the population is now living in poverty. Real wages have fallen, joblessness has increased, school enrolment has dropped and general health has deteriorated. However, despite this gloomy picture, households are also proving to be remarkably resilient to the dramatic drop in living standards most have experienced. Nevertheless, strategies for alleviating poverty and encouraging regeneration that increase employment opportunities, improve the social safety net, and protect the region's human capital are urgently required.

Suggested Citation

  • Jane Falkingham, 1999. "Welfare in Transition: Trends in Poverty and Well-being in Central Asia," CASE Papers 020, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:sticas:020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cp/Paper20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rutkowski, Michael, 1995. "Workers in transition," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1556, The World Bank.
    2. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    3. Atkinson,Anthony Barnes & Micklewright,John, 1992. "Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521438827, January.
    4. Peter Lanjouw, 1997. "How Important is a Poverty Line in the Central Asian Context?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Jane Falkingham & Jeni Klugman & Sheila Marnie & John Micklewright (ed.), Household Welfare in Central Asia, chapter 4, pages 61-77, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Richard Pomfret & Kathryn H. Anderson, 1997. "Uzbekistan: Welfare Impact of Slow Transition," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1997-135, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Jane Falkingham & Jeni Klugman & Sheila Marnie & John Micklewright (ed.), 1997. "Household Welfare in Central Asia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-25475-0.
    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. Jane Falkingham, 2000. "From Security to Uncertainty: The impact of economic change on child welfare in central Asia," Papers inwopa00/5, Innocenti Working Papers.
    2. *Unicef, 2006. "Innocenti Social Monitor 2006: Understanding child poverty in South-Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States," Papers insomo06/8, Innocenti Social Monitor.
    3. Jennifer Franz & Felix R. FitzRoy, 2005. "Child mortaility, poverty and environment in developing countries," Discussion Paper Series, School of Economics and Finance 200518, School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews.

    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. Anderson, Kathryn & Pomfret, Richard, 2000. "Living Standards during Transition to a Market Economy: The Kyrgyz Republic in 1993 and 1996," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 502-523, September.
    2. Micklewright, John & Klugman, Jeni & Redmond, Gerry, 2002. "Poverty in the Transition: Social Expenditures and the Working-Age Poor," CEPR Discussion Papers 3389, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Aline Coudouel & John Micklewright & Sheila Marnie, 1998. "Targeting Social Assistance in a Transition Economy: the Mahallas in Uzbekistan," Papers iopeps98/4, Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic Policy Series.
    4. Rolf Aaberge & François Bourguignon & Andrea Brandolini & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Janet C. Gornick & John Hills & Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins & Eric Marlier & John Micklewright & Brian Nolan, 2017. "Tony Atkinson and his Legacy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(3), pages 411-444, September.
    5. Andrew Newell & Barry Reilly, 1999. "Rates of Return to Educational Qualifications in the Transitional Economies," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 67-84.
    6. Micklewright, John & Coudouel, Aline & Marnie, Sheila, 2004. "Targeting and Self-Targeting in a New Social Assistance Scheme," IZA Discussion Papers 1112, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Flemming, J.S. & Micklewright, John, 2000. "Income distribution, economic systems and transition," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 843-918, Elsevier.
    8. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    9. Jane Falkingham, 2000. "A Profile of Poverty in Tajikistan," CASE Papers case39, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    10. Richard Pomfret, 1998. "Poverty in the Kyrgyz Republic," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 1998-05, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    11. Pomfret, Richard, 2000. "Agrarian Reform in Uzbekistan: Why Has the Chinese Model Failed to Deliver?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 269-284, January.
    12. Jane Falkingham, 2000. "From Security to Uncertainty: The impact of economic change on child welfare in central Asia," Papers inwopa00/5, Innocenti Working Papers.
    13. Lanjouw, Jean Olson & Lanjouw, Peter, 1997. "Poverty comparisons with non-compatible data: theory and illustrations," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1709, The World Bank.
    14. David Clifford & Jane Falkingham & Andrew Hinde, 2010. "Through Civil War, Food Crisis and Drought: Trends in Fertility and Nuptiality in Post-Soviet Tajikistan [Au Travers de la Guerre Civile, de la Crise Alimentaire et de la Sécheresse : les Évolution," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 325-350, August.
    15. Anderson, Kathryn H. & Pomfret, Richard, 2002. "Relative Living Standards in New Market Economies: Evidence from Central Asian Household Surveys," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 683-708, December.
    16. Ravallion, Martin & van de Walle, Dominique & Gautam, Madhur, 1995. "Testing a social safety net," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 175-199, June.
    17. Rojas, Mariano, 2011. "Poverty and psychological distress in Latin America," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 206-217, March.
    18. Emanuela Galasso & Martin Ravallion, 2004. "Social Protection in a Crisis: Argentina's Plan Jefes y Jefas," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 18(3), pages 367-399.
    19. Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 2000. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970-1995," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 3, pages 93-134, May.
    20. Alberto Chilosi, 2014. "The Economic System as an End or as a Means, and the Future of Socialism: An Evolutionary Viewpoint," Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought, in: Riccardo Bellofiore & Ewa Karwowski & Jan Toporowski (ed.), Economic Crisis and Political Economy, chapter 1, pages 10-28, Palgrave Macmillan.

    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:cep:sticas:020. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case/_new/publications/ .

    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.