Do Demographics Matter for African Child Poverty?

Batana, Yele M. ; Cockburn, John

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: POVERTY MEASUREMENT;    DEMOGRAPHICS;    CHILD POVERTY;    HOUSEHOLD SIZE;    EQUIVALENCE SCALES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8426
RP-ID  :  WPS8426

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The effect of demographics on povertymeasurement based on per capita consumption is well known.The size and composition of the household can affect thewell-being of everyone in the household, with respect tototal consumption within that household. Failure to addressthis issue may often lead to an underestimation oroverestimation of poverty, especially for children. Manystudies have tried to address the issue, using the genericapproach of equivalence scales. However, the choice of scaleis controversial and may lead to comparability problemsbetween countries because of the different demographicstructures and choice of the pivot household forestablishing the per capita poverty line. Based on the WorldBank's African poverty database, this study estimatespoverty rates for African children using the newinternational poverty line of $1.90 a day defined in termsof 2011 purchasing power parity. The equivalence scalesapproach (Food and Agriculture Organization/World HealthOrganization) is used with the adjustment suggested byDeaton after the identification of the pivot household,which is defined as the household whose per capitaconsumption is around the international poverty line. Thisstudy shows that taking account of demographics results indownward adjustments of child poverty, adult poverty, andchild-adult poverty gaps. Moreover, breakdowns by countryshow that poverty may vary significantly depending ondemographics, which may cause some reranking when comparingpoverty between African countries. Finally, sensitivityanalyses reveal that child poverty is not sensitive to thechild discount factor, unlike adult poverty, but, overall,taking account of demographics is helpful for betteridentifying poor children.