We take advantage of the fact that for the Austrian SILC 2008-2011, two data sources are available in parallel for the same households: register-based and survey-based income data. Thus, we aim to explain which households tend to under- or over-report their household income by estimating multinomial logit and OLS models with covariates referring to the interview situation, employment status and socio-demographic household characteristics. Furthermore, we analyze source-specific differences in the distribution of household income and how these differences affect aggregate poverty indicators based on household income. The analysis reveals an increase in the cross-sectional poverty rates for 2008-2011 and the longitudinal poverty rate if register data rather than survey data are used. These changes in the poverty rate are mainly driven by differences in employment income rather than sampling weights and other income components. Regression results show a pattern of mean-reverting errors when comparing household income between the two data sources. Furthermore, differences between data sources for both under-reporting and over-reporting slightly decrease with the number of panel waves in which a household participated. Among the other variables analyzed that are related to the interview situation (mode, proxy, interview month), only the number of proxy interviews was (weakly) positively correlated with the difference between data sources, although this outcome was not robust over different model specifications.

In this three-part essay, we explore the classical issue of the interplay between inequality and growth and the role of government in the underlying dynamics using modern macroeconomic analytical tools and and econometric methods. In the first chapter, we frame the issues within an environment of endogenous labor supply where the government serves as both a facilitator of production and a source of redistribution. Herein we model and numerically simulate the effects on inequality and growth of an expansionary fiscal policy in the harnessing of externalities emanating from productive government capital which is subject to relative congestion. The results from this assessment indicate that congestion accelerates the time-path to steady-state convergence while moderating the distributional consequences of fiscal expansions and strengthening the potential for a tradeoff between instantaneous and long-run policy outcomes. Through numerical simulations we further demonstrate the inability of the capital income tax to ensure redistribution in the long run for significantly high levels of congestion such that the sole possibility for the joint realization of economic growth and decreasing inequality resides in the deployment of a hybrid tax scheme which disproportionately strengthens the return to labor. In the second chapter, we explore the distributional properties of the Barro (1990) model of productive government spending in the presence of endogenous labor, distortionary taxes and congestion externalities. We derive an optimal tax combination and demonstrate the effects on growth and inequality which arise from its enablement in circumstances where the government share is both optimally and sub-optimally determined for varying levels of congestion. Utilizing the endogenous response of labor to capital ownership, we show that depending on the tax regime adopted, a conflict between equity and efficiency exists regardless of whether inequality is evaluated in terms of income or welfare. In the third chapter, we utilize an extensive database to establish the strength of response of poverty to changes in economic growth as being positively influenced by improving institutional indices where poverty is evaluated at the $2.00/day margin. Accordingly, we establish the possibility that the war against poverty can be fought as much by policies that promote growth as by the effectuation of structural reforms which advance healthy economic development.

In an era saturated with images of suffering, especially the suffering of children, the voice of the impoverished child in modernist fiction of the Great Depression demands a different type of response as the reader experiences an experimental modernism that is, at once, as political and complicated as highly sentimental images. The fictional construction of the poor child's voice does major cultural work that has been long ignored in studies of the 1930s, cultural work that expands discussions of poverty and teaches us how to listen to what we might otherwise reject. The astonishingly complex voices that the poor child in these representations is pressed into, the choices made and claims asserted--that may seem bizarre and ill-fitting and outrageous--are in fact the artistic and political triumph of these texts, an artistic triumph that functions as an ethical understanding and elicits a moral engagement in which we as readers learn to listen to a kind of self-presentation that is entirely of its own making, that asks us to respond and to comprehend. Literature from the 1930s written about children depicts the other that is actually other, disoriented and confusing and odd. After all, it is tenable if the poor child should choose silence or bitterness; yet instead, this literature gives voice to the poor child, voice that sensitively displays great ingenuity and practicality. The anti-language of this vulnerable other, as demonstrated in the work of Faulkner, Caldwell, Olsen, and Wright prompts the reader to see overlapping registers not as chaotic or nonsensical but as the child's efforts to shape order from clutter and to engage others in the problems of their world, a world marked by loss and damage. Thus, by unpacking the disorder within the language of the poor child, the limit case for depravity, the reader undertakes an empathetic engagement that, because it sees the child as other, attempts to imagine the child's interiority. The child in poverty models for the reader a way to see the world anew, a call for an ethical understanding that brings forth imaginative proposals to problems devastatingly simple--a lack of basic needs--yet made complex not only by the magnitude of those suffering and the systems that propagate such suffering, but the fact that the one suffering is a child. In other words, the anti-language of the poor child teaches us how to read ethically while other cultural voices for the child in poverty, because they erase the "potential disorder" within language, make invisible the interior complexity of the poor child. If taught how to listen to that which we might otherwise reject, the anti-language of the poor child--articulated or silent, stream-of-consciousness or formally narrated, fictional or epistolary--demands a response. Poverty, after all, is deeply embedded within our denials and America, quite frankly, does not know what to do with the poor. A call toward an ethical understanding that elicits our engagement is to claim voice for a poor child, to move her from the margins to the center where we are made aware and can begin the arduous work of unpacking the complicated dialectic of her language.

In his 2008 book, American Hungers: The Problem of Poverty in U.S. Literature, 1840-1945, Gavin Jones calls for academic studies of literature that examine poverty as its own actuality, worthy of discussion and definition despite its inherently polemical nature. As presented by Jones and tested here, American literature reveals how poverty is established, defined and understood; the anxieties of class; imperative connections with issues of gender and race; and the fictions of American democracy and the American Dream. This proves to be especially interesting when examining the 1890s. From a sociological standpoint, the eighteenth century's approach to poverty was largely moralistic, while the early parts of the nineteenth century moved toward acknowledging the impact of environmental and social factors. Literature itself was changing as a result of the realism and naturalism movements; the resulting popularity of local color and dialect writing and the exploding market for magazine fiction created access to and an audience for literature that discussed poverty in multifarious ways. Furthermore, New York proved to be an ideal setting - the influx of immigrants, the obvious problem of the slums, and the public's infatuation with those slums - and served as a catalyst for a diverse body of writing. Middle-class anxieties, especially, surfaced in this modern Babel. This study begins with a historical and sociological overview of the time period as well as an analysis of the problematic photography of the effective reformer Jacob Riis. Like Riis's photography, the cartoons of R.F. Outcault both challenge and subtly support stereotypes of poverty and serve as a reminder of the presence of poverty in day-to-day life and entertainment of turn-of-the-century New Yorkers. Stephen Crane's Maggie is discussed in depth, and his Tommie sketches are contrasted with the middle-class Whilomville Tales. These pieces have in common several unifying qualities: the centrality of the human body to the discussion of poverty, the failure of language for those in poverty, vision as a tool writers and artists lean heavily upon, and the awareness of multiple audiences within and without the text. Ultimately, the pieces return to the burdened bodies of small children - "the site that bears the marks, the damage, of being poor" (Jones American Hungers 3).

One of the most important issues for states in the developing world is how to best reduce poverty. Do international or domestic factors matter more for poverty reduction? Does trade openness lead to increased or decreased poverty, or does the quality of domestic institutions decrease the level of poverty in a state? This thesis presents a straightforward analysis of these two explanations in the developing world. Using cross-sectional data from 1998 and 1999, I utilize ordinary least squares regression to estimate the general effects on state poverty levels of two concepts: trade openness and domestic institutions. I find that domestic institutions and level of development tend to decrease poverty in developing countries. Evidence for the link between trade openness and poverty is mixed. I then consider three additional concepts: capital openness, secure property rights, and foreign direct investment. When looking at these added international and domestic factors along with the original three, I find that capital openness and level of development have an impact on poverty reduction in the developing world, as does winning coalition size if it is given more than a year to take effect.

viii, 88 p. : ill. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / In recent years, researchers have taken a particular interest in the spatial concentration of poverty due to evidence suggesting that people liVing within certain densities of poverty are more likely to experience certain problems or what have become known as neighborhood effects. This analysis is a quantitative study, focused on describing changes in poverty concentration between 1990 and 2000 in United States metropolitan areas. The study reports changes seen at the commonly used 40% poverty concentration threshold between 1990 and 2000, while at the same time considering other concentration thresholds and how changing the threshold by which we evaluate poverty informs the general trends policy makers receive information about when changes in poverty occur. / Committee in Charge: Neil Bania, Ph.D., Chair; Jessica Greene, Ph.D.; Jean Stockard, Ph.D.

This dissertation examines the macroeconomic effects of poverty and inequality. The second chapter considers the effect of poverty and subsistence consumption constraints on economic growth in a two-sector occupational choice model. I find that in the presence of risk taking, subsistence consumption constraints result in a dramatic slow down in terms of economic growth. The third chapter (joint with Shankha Chakraborty) proposes a model in which agents face endogenous mortality and direct preferences over inequality. I find that the greater the scale of relative deprivation the worse the mortality outcomes are for individuals. The fourth chapter looks at the relationship between inequality and the demand for redistribution when individuals have social status concerns. I show that under social status concerns an increase in consumption inequality results in higher taxation and lower growth. This dissertation includes unpublished coauthored material.

In view of the high levels of poverty in most under-developed and developing countries, poverty reduction has become an international phenomenon. South Africa (SA) is a country faced with the challenge of poverty as a result of the high rates of unemployment fifteen (15) years after the introduction of the new democratic dispensation. Poverty reduction has been placed at the centre of global development objectives to improve people‟s lives through expanding their choices, their freedom, and their dignity. Numerous countries have developed poverty-reduction strategies, which are over-arching macro-strategies implemented by different social and economic sectors in collaboration with the private sector. South Africa, however, does not have an over-arching poverty reduction strategy, which is the key national governmental priority, although many poverty-reduction programmes exist. The existing poverty reduction initiatives in South Africa, such as Income Generating Projects (IGPs), are either established by Government or the Civil Society structures with the aim to assist in changing the standard of living of poor people so that they can at least meet their basic needs, such as food, shelter and clothing. This study focuses on the IGPs that operate in Atteridgeville, Tshwane, with the view to explore and describe the experiences of individuals who participate in these IGPs. A qualitative research approach was selected for the study and three IGPs were selected from the Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) that affiliate to the Phelindaba Forum. This Forum coordinates social development activities in Atteridgeville, Saulsville and Mshengoville. The findings of the study indicated that although IGPs are established to benefit participants financially, there are other factors that motivate people to join and remain in the projects, such as moral support amongst members. Furthermore, some NGOs claim to facilitate IGPs, but in some instances, these IGPs are left to operate on their own without much needed assistance. The recommendation for future studies is that participants need to be engaged with in order to get a true reflection of how the IGPs operate. The assistance and support of NGOs are crucial for the sustainability of such projects. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

DINIZ , Marcelo Bentes; ARRAES, Ronaldo Albuquerque. Contribuições ao estudo da desigualdade de renda entre os Estados Brasileiros. 2005. 209f. Tese (doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Economia - CAEN, Fortaleza-CE, 2005 / Submitted by Mônica Correia Aquino (monicacorreiaaquino@gmail.com) on 2011-09-05T12:32:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Marcelo Bentes Diniz seguro 2011.pdf: 1255471 bytes, checksum: 5489c8efa5a5c84c060efe7138dbf02f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Mônica Correia Aquino(monicacorreiaaquino@gmail.com) on 2011-09-05T12:32:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Marcelo Bentes Diniz seguro 2011.pdf: 1255471 bytes, checksum: 5489c8efa5a5c84c060efe7138dbf02f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-09-05T12:32:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Marcelo Bentes Diniz seguro 2011.pdf: 1255471 bytes, checksum: 5489c8efa5a5c84c060efe7138dbf02f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Makes an analysis considering the household income concept aplied for brasilian states. Besides a large preliminary discussion concerning partial factors who explain inequality, including those ones assign to national literature, this thesis presents two relevant parts. The characterization of probability distribution that describe income distribution for brasilian states and a different methodology to calculate inequality and poverty indicators. Concerning this goal are present two information groups: Kernel Functions and “best adjustment” probability distributions for every state. By the way, are presents two theoretical structure, from result different econometrics framework, on the way to explain income inequality in Brazil. Thus, to catch the relationship between household income inequality and economic growth, was used first a framework based upon a simultaneous equation models applied in cross-sectional data for brazilian states with some extensions to different revenue percentiles. Otherwise, considering a theoretical model with just one equation and following panel data methodology to Random Effects and Instrumental Variables estimation. At the and was made an exercise using Quantiles Regressions to catch the selected variables effects on different groups of states. / Faz uma análise da desigualdade de renda considerando o conceito de renda domiciliar e tendo como unidade espacial os Estados brasileiros. Além de ampla discussão preliminar sobre os fatores que parcialmente explicam desigualdade, inclusive, os apontados pela literatura nacional, esta tese apresenta duas partes empíricas relevantes. A caracterização das distribuições de probabilidade que descrevem as distribuições de renda para os estados brasileiros, inclusive, apresentando diferente metodologia para cálculo de indicadores de desigualdade e pobreza. Dentro desse objetivo são apresentados dois conjuntos de informação: funções de Kernel e as distribuições de probabilidade “de melhor ajuste” as distribuições de renda de cada estado. Por seu turno, também são apresentadas duas estruturas teóricas, do qual decorrem diferentes contextos econométricos, com a finalidade de explicar as causas da desigualdade de renda no Brasil. Assim, com objetivo de captar a relação entre desigualdade e crescimento utiliza-se um modelo econométrico na estrutura de equações simultâneas para dados cross-section, com extensões para diferentes percentis da renda. Por seu turno, considerando um modelo teórico com apenas uma equação e, na estrutura de dados em painel, são realizadas estimações pelo método de Efeito Aleatório e Variáveis Instrumentais. Por fim, é elaborado um exercício com Regressões Quantílicas para captar como as variáveis selecionadas atingem diferentes grupos de Estados.

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