Masters of Art / Measuring poverty adequately is critical for any type of development project, and yet there are still no clear guidelines as to which approach is best to be used for different circumstances. There is a variety of different ways of measuring and understanding poverty, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the intended goal. This research explored the theory regarding poverty and poverty measurements, and research various perspectives ranging from income to basic needs, socail exclusion, sustainable livelihoods, and finally to the Human Development Approach. / South Africa

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: Thomas F. Crossley. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is a collection of three independent essays that applies microeconometrics techniques to empirically study topics in development and labour economics. The first chapter uses evidence from a natural experiment in Bangladesh, where households were treated to different types of transfer, food grains and cash, at different periods in time, to test the effect of these transfers on household consumption behaviour. Using the fixed effect instrumental variable model, the estimation results show that though in-kind transfers did cause households to consume more grain than they would have chosen under equal-value cash transfers, the impact on calorie consumption and children health status is minimal. Households that received cash were able to reallocate their funds more effectively, and chose to spend their extra income on clothing and children's non-food consumption, while at the same time spending no more on vices. The second chapter investigates the dynamics of living standards in Thailand. Income and earnings processes are first modelled after the statistical Galton-Markov process before being extended to follow a more structural permanent earnings model. Empirical estimations of income and earnings persistence in Thailand employ both constructed pseudo-panel data from Thailand's Labour Force Surveys and the Townsend Thai panel data. Galton-Markov estimates found conditional persistence to be low in Thailand. However, quantile regression estimates find that persistence is low at the bottom of the distribution but high at the top, indicating a divergence in earnings as time passes. A study of the covariance structure of earnings finds that total variation in the earnings process is predominantly driven by moderately persistent transitory components following the AR(1) process. The third chapter attempts to empirically fit the power-law distribution and study the dynamics of inequality, especially at the upper end, of the income and consumption distribution in Thailand. We find that using the popular but incorrect method based on the linear regression approach will lead to researchers drawing a wrong conclusion. Regression estimates of the power-law exponent, a, provide strong evidence of power-law fit in Thailand. However, from the implementation of the superior Clauset et al. method, the evidence in support of the power-law fit is much weaker. Estimates of a for both income and consumption suggest that there is low inequality at the top in Thailand but further inspection finds that there is a high level of persistent between-group inequality between the top and bottom ends of the distribution. In addition, following Battistin et al. (2009), we find weak support for Gibrat's law of proportional random growth as the income-generating process in Thailand.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A high savings culture is important for sustainable economic development of any country. Whilst Botswana has one of the highest gross national savings in sub-Saharan Africa, the same cannot be said regarding household savings. Household savings in Botswana have grown at a very slow pace between 2003 and 2012, a worrisome trend given the importance of savings. The main objective of the research assignment was to determine the factors that influence households saving behaviour in Botswana. A probit econometric model was used to find out what factors influence households to choose to save and which ones influence them not to save. Saving behaviour was measured by whether an individual has saved money with a financial institution within the past 12 months. The individual characteristics that were modelled for influence on households saving behaviour were age, income level, education level, gender, formal credit, informal credit, insurance and property ownership. The results indicated that, as suggested by theory and empirical evidence, age, income level and education level have a positive and significant influence on households saving behaviour, whereas, also in line with theory, formal and informal credit and insurance have a negative and significant influence on households saving behaviour. Being female also has a negative but insignificant influence on households saving behaviour. Contrary to expectations, property ownership, which was used as proxy for non-financial assets, has a positive influence on household saving behaviour, although the influence is not significant.

Given the global food price spike experienced in 2007/8, the core question of this research is, ‘what was the impact of the rising food prices on household welfare in Zambia'? Taking an empirical approach and using micro-economic methods, four welfare outcomes are assessed: consumption, equality of income distribution, poverty and nutrition. The 2006 and 2010 cross-section household surveys - Living Conditions Monitoring Surveys (LCMS) - are primarily used to answer the question. The thesis first assesses the changes in consumption patterns across time, geographical locations and quintiles. The short-term distribution of income from the rise in prices is then analysed using non-parametric methods to show the likely winners and losers from the price spike and the subsequent impact on poverty. These results are supplemented by a supply response as an attempt to understand longer-term poverty effects. The final empirical exercise focuses on nutrition outcomes. The thesis confirms the hypothesis that on average, urban households may suffer a welfare loss but rural households may gain. In the case of maize grain, the results suggest that the highest gain may accrue to rural households clustered around the poverty line. Furthermore, the findings suggest that, while overall poverty may increase in the short-run, the long-run impacts of rising food prices (once supply response are accounted for) may lead to a marginal decline in poverty. Finally, we observe that the slight increase in income, from selling maize, among some rural households may not necessarily lead to an improvement in nutrition outcomes. In particular, while rural households exhibit a small net rise in income from an increase in maize prices, the impact on stunting levels among children below five years appears to be regressive in both urban and rural areas. The overall results of this research strengthen the case for contextual impact analysis of covariate shocks and also highlight the policy challenges arising from such conflicting results.

The dissertation provides a systematic analysis of global obligations relating to a decent standard of living. Global obligations represent a type of extraterritorial obligations, which does not presuppose any causal link between acts/omissions of global actors and individuals’ inability to enjoy their human rights. Global obligations are a key legal tool for empowering the most vulnerable individuals, promoting social justice, and reducing extreme poverty and inequality worldwide. Despite their importance, global obligations have not yet received adequate legal recognition, regulation, and realization. They are the least elucidated and the most unfulfilled type of extraterritorial obligations. Many scholars and practitioners highlight a major discrepancy between globalization and contemporary human rights law: socio-economic rights obligations are still often considered to be applicable only within states’ borders (if at all); obligations of intergovernmental organizations and non-state actors are frequently believed to be exhausted by negative duties to respect human rights; and contemporary mechanisms of the implementation of global obligations (for instance, obligations of development cooperation or international assistance) are insufficient, inefficient, and often violate human rights. In this context, the justification, conceptualization, and furtherance of global obligations is a task of paramount importance. The primary goals of the dissertation are, therefore: first, to justify global obligations as human rights obligations of multiple actors; second, to analyze their nature, status, types, content, scope, right-holders, and duty-bearers; and third, to examine contemporary mechanisms used for the realization of global obligations and suggest some measures for their improvement. The research is aimed at proposing a coherent and plausible framework for a reconstruction of human rights law regulating global obligations. The dissertation intends to uncover the interrelation between philosophical discourse, normative legal order, and legal practice. On the one hand, it demonstrates how contemporary theories of global justice can contribute to the justification, conceptualization, allocation, and implementation of global obligations. It translates philosophical ideas into the language of law and incorporates empirical findings in relation to global obligations. On the other hand, it explores whether human rights theory and practice are capable of, and essential to, solving the most pressing issues of global justice, extreme poverty and inequality alleviation. In particular, it shows that the existing international soft and hard law instruments, customary international law, and human rights practice also give an important framework for the legal acknowledgement, specification, and attribution of global obligations to various actors. The dissertation takes a form of three Articles. The first Article provides a legal-philosophical justification for and outlines a legal conception of global obligations of multiple actors relating to a decent standard of living. The second Article undertakes a legal analysis of global obligations for sustainable development. The third Article explores the legal theory and practice of global obligations to assist in the realization of socio-economic rights.

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Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.--University of Hong Kong) under the title: Tang dai shou du Chang'an de ju min sheng ji yu cheng shi zheng ce yan jiu. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 330-390).

published_or_final_version / Applied Statistics / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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