Poverty and Ethnicity : A Cross-Country Study of ROMA Poverty in Central Europe

Revenga, Ana ; Ringold, Dena ; Tracy, William Martin

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: POVERTY INCIDENCE;    ETHNIC CONCENTRATION;    VULNERABLE GROUPS;    LIVING CONDITIONS;    CROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-5339-X
RP-ID  :  WTP531

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

ROMA are the main poverty risk groups inmany of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.However, information on their living conditions, and thecharacteristics of their poverty is scarce, fragmented, andoften anecdotal. This paper analyzes data from a newcross-country household survey, conducted by the Center forComparative Research, at Yale University. The survey is thefirst of its kind which addresses the ethnic dimension ofpoverty across countries, covering Roma in Hungary,Bulgaria, and Romania. The paper finds that welfare amongRoma households is significantly lower than that ofnon-Roma, in terms of both material deprivation (consumptionand income), and other measures of deprivation, includinghousing status, education levels, and employmentopportunities. Multivariate analysis confirm that,controlling for other household characteristics, there is astrong negative association between Roma ethnicity, andwelfare. A large part of this association appears to be dueto differences in endowments, and opportunities, but thereis also an important component that is"structural". This component may reflect theinfluence of past, and present discrimination, exclusion,and cultural factors which may affect access to publicservices, e.g., through language barriers.