We show how to minimize the probability of misclassifying individuals as being poor or not poor when data on some of their relevant attributes are missing, but an estimate of the population distribution of attributes is available. JEL Classification Codes: D63, I32

Social Security in Belgium: Distributive Outcomes The paper analyzes the link between old-age income programs and economic outcomes in Belgium. We use a simulation methodology to construct an average pension generosity variable. Our regression analysis explores the link with distributional outcomes in income, consumption and more subjective indicators. Results document the weak link between ave...

p eople’s business credit program (kur) has been launched to alleviate poverty through provision of micro financing to micro entrepreneurs in indonesia this study aims to estimate the impact of kur program using cross-sectional data and propensity score matching technique (psm). the survey was conducted on 332 household entrepreneurs, consisting of 155 kur receivers and 177 non-kur receivers. r...

Does Relative Income Matter for the Very Poor? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia We studied whether relative income has an impact on subjective well-being among extremely poor people. Contrary to the findings in developed countries, where relative income has shown a significant and negative impact on subjective well-being, we cannot reject the hypothesis that relative income has no impact on subject...

This paper focuses on the role of remittances on financial expectations in Albania using longitudinal data covering the period 2002-2004. To study the dynamics of income satisfaction at the household level, we use subjective data on past, current and future financial situations and estimate random and fixed effect ordered Probit models. We find that households are more optimistic about the futu...

This paper is motivated by the lack of any obvious relationship between aggregate poverty and unemployment in Great Britain. We derive a framework based on individuals’ risks of unemployment and poverty, and how these vary over the economic cycle. Analysing the British Household Panel Survey for 1991-96, we are able to square the micro evidence that unemployment matters for poverty with the mac...

In a model in which agents di↵er in wages and preferences over labor time–consumption bundles, we study labor income tax schemes that alleviate poverty. To avoid conflict with individual well-being, we require redistribution to take place between agents on both sides of the poverty line provided they have the same labor time. This requirement is combined with e ciency and robustness properties....

Child Poverty and Changes in Child Poverty in Rich Countries Since 1990 This paper documents levels and changes in child poverty rates in 12 OECD countries using data from the Luxembourg Income Study project, and focusing upon an analysis of the reasons for changes over the 1990s. The objective is to uncover the relative role of income transfers from the state in determining the magnitude and d...

This paper adopts the “Rip Van Winkle” stratagem, of asking what differences would be noticed, in the domain of poverty and distribution, by someone who fell asleep in 1987 (the year I published my paper on poverty in the IMF Staff Papers, and woke up only in 2007 (the year I visited the IMF to work on the present paper). I highlight, somewhat idiosyncratically, ten such differences under three...

This paper surveys the status of food security in the South Asian countries, particularly India. Particular attention has been paid to small landholders (those households owning less than 2 hectares of land). Using NSS data from 1993–94 and 2004–05 the paper shows that small landholders are an increasing proportion of i) total rural households, ii) rural households who are poor, and iii) rural ...