Are Poor Individuals Mainly Found in Poor Households?
Antipoverty policies in developing countries often assume that targeting poor households will be reasonably effective in reaching poor individuals. This paper questions this assumption, using nutritional status as a proxy for individual poverty. Th...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/427491489094206188/Are-poor-individuals-mainly-found-in-poor-households-evidence-using-nutrition-data-for-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26342 |
| Summary: | Antipoverty policies in developing
countries often assume that targeting poor households will
be reasonably effective in reaching poor individuals. This
paper questions this assumption, using nutritional status as
a proxy for individual poverty. The comprehensive assessment
for Sub-Saharan Africa reveals that undernourished women and
children are spread widely across the distribution of
household wealth and consumption. Roughly three-quarters of
underweight women and undernourished children are not found
in the poorest 20 percent of households, and around half are
not found in the poorest 40 percent. The mean joint
probability of being an underweight woman and living in the
poorest wealth quintile is only 0.03. Countries with higher
overall rates of undernutrition tend to have a higher share
of undernourished individuals in nonpoor households. The
results are consistent with evidence of substantial
intrahousehold inequality. |
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