acase@tulane.edu / This dissertation includes three essays analyzing the socio-economic impacts of fiscal policies in the areas of educational attainment, interstate migration, inequality, and poverty. The first chapter, Labor versus Capital in the Provision of Public Services: Estimating the Marginal Products of Inputs in the Production of Student Outcomes, evaluates and compares the impact of various types of school expenditures on student test scores. It finds that additional operating expenditure has a positive short-term impact on students’ test scores (mainly through its impact on teachers’ compensation) while capital expenditures do no have any impact. The second chapter, Do Government Subsidies to Low-income Individuals Affect Interstate Migration? Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Care Reform, estimates the impact of MHCR on interstate migration of low income individuals to Massachusetts. It finds that providing health subsidy to low income individuals increases the population growth rate of low income individuals in border cities of Massachusetts with the other states and the effect diminishes quickly as distance to the state border increases. The third chapter, Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and Poverty in Iran: Assessing the Impact and Effectiveness of Taxes and Transfers, analyzes the fiscal system in Iran and its impact on inequality and poverty. It finds that the Targeted Subsidy Reform plays the major role in reducing inequality and poverty in Iran. / 1 / Ali Enami

The UK government has pledged to end child poverty by 2020. It is not known how far the measure of child poverty used by the government corresponds to differences in children’s experiences. Qualitative research on poverty has not generally been informed by the insights of dynamic research, which investigates duration, timing and transitions, among other temporal topics. Qualitative and quantitative methods have not generally been combined in social policy research on poverty, which limits the explanatory power of both. The thesis presents an analysis of the correspondence or lack of correspondence between qualitative and quantitative research on child poverty as a temporal experience. Semi-structured life history interviews were conducted with 15-21 year olds in Britain with experience of child poverty in the period 1997-2001. These were analysed alongside secondary analysis of the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2005). The qualitative respondents lived in households which took part in the survey, so there is a direct link between the two methods. The assumptions, methods and findings of dynamic poverty research are in general found to be a simplified and decontexualised version, rather than a misrepresentation of, the qualitative findings. Time formed an important part of the experience of poverty for children. It was not possible to fully match together exits from poverty with perceived improvements in circumstances, and entries into poverty with perceived deteriorations in circumstances, though this was partly due to limited recall and lack of contemporaneous knowledge. Nor were these changes clearly placed in time by respondents, in terms of duration and timing. Although most respondents did not explicitly engage with the idea of poverty as a personal experience, poverty-like accounts of disadvantage and difference were found in the accounts of all respondents. Thus, there is evidence for and against the way child poverty is currently measured.

The thesis considers two pertinent questions about poverty in Fiji. One is about the accuracy of the poverty measures calculated by the concerned organisations and this relates to the use of equivalence scales and the general style of analysis. The other more intricate question is the disregard for poverty due to intra-family distribution asymmetries. Such miscalculations of poverty arise due use of average household per capita expenditure to represent consumption. This research attempts to answer the question of whether the tendency to underestimate the incidence of poverty by disregarding intra-family inequality is significant. Furthermore, it attempts to determine the causes of these inequalities. The issue is whether the classical method of data analysis (using the family as a unit) is the ideal way of analysing poverty and distribution in societies where large family structures exist and government relief remains minimal. To determine the household inequalities, household expenditures have been disaggregated into individualised expenditures. The individualised consumption expenditure is analysed and compared with the outcomes of aggregate household expenditure data. The analysis provides overwhelming evidence for underestimation of poverty when household consumption expenditures are used.

The thesis considers two pertinent questions about poverty in Fiji. One is about the accuracy of the poverty measures calculated by the concerned organisations and this relates to the use of equivalence scales and the general style of analysis. The other more intricate question is the disregard for poverty due to intra-family distribution asymmetries. Such miscalculations of poverty arise due use of average household per capita expenditure to represent consumption. This research attempts to answer the question of whether the tendency to underestimate the incidence of poverty by disregarding intra-family inequality is significant. Furthermore, it attempts to determine the causes of these inequalities. The issue is whether the classical method of data analysis (using the family as a unit) is the ideal way of analysing poverty and distribution in societies where large family structures exist and government relief remains minimal. To determine the household inequalities, household expenditures have been disaggregated into individualised expenditures. The individualised consumption expenditure is analysed and compared with the outcomes of aggregate household expenditure data. The analysis provides overwhelming evidence for underestimation of poverty when household consumption expenditures are used.