Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T17:34:13.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mapping poverty in rural China: how much does the environment matter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2011

SUSAN OLIVIA ,
JOHN GIBSON ,
SCOTT ROZELLE ,
JIKUN HUANG  and
XIANGZHENG DENG
SUSAN OLIVIA*
Affiliation:
Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. Email: susan.olivia@monash.edu
JOHN GIBSON
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Email: jkgibson@mngt.waikato.ac.nz
SCOTT ROZELLE
Affiliation:
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Email: rozelle@stanford.edu
JIKUN HUANG
Affiliation:
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Email: jkhuang.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn
XIANGZHENG DENG
Affiliation:
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Email: dengxz.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A recently developed small area estimation technique is used to geographically derive detailed estimates of consumption-based poverty and inequality in rural Shaanxi, China. These estimates may be helpful for targeting since there is wide variability in poverty rates within Shaanxi but low levels of inequality within most counties and townships. We also investigate whether including environmental variables in the equation used to predict consumption and poverty improves upon typical approaches that only use household survey and census data. Ignoring environmental variables appears likely to produce targeting errors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 129 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alderman, H., Babita, M., Demombynes, G., Makhatha, N., and Özler, B. (2003), ‘How low can you go? Combining census and survey data for mapping poverty in South Africa’, Journal of African Economics 11 (2): 169–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, J. and Grosh, M. (1994), ‘Poverty reduction through geographic targeting: how well does it work?’, World Development 22 (7): 983–995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedi, T., Coudouel, A., and Simler, K. (2007), More than a Pretty Picture: Using Poverty Maps to Design Better Policies and Interventions, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Chen, S. and Ravallion, M. (2008), ‘China is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4621, Washington, DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deng, X., Huang, J., Rozelle, S., and Uchida, E. (2008), ‘Growth, population and industrialization and urban land expansion of China’, Journal of Urban Economics 63 (1): 96–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekbom, A. and Bojo, A. (1999), ‘Poverty and environment: evidence of links and integration in the country assistance strategy process’, World Bank Africa Region Discussion Paper No. 4, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Elbers, C., Lanjouw, J., and Lanjouw, P. (2003), ‘Micro-level estimation of poverty and inequality’, Econometrica 71 (1): 355–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elbers, C., Lanjouw, J., and Lanjouw, P. (2005), ‘Imputed welfare estimates in regression analysis’, Journal of Economic Geography 5 (1): 101–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, J., Datt, G., Allen, B., Hwang, V., Bourke, M., and Parajuli, D. (2005), ‘Mapping poverty in rural Papua New Guinea’, Pacific Economic Bulletin 20 (1): 27–43.Google Scholar
Healy, A. and Jitsuchon, S. (2007), ‘Finding the poor in Thailand’, Journal of Asian Economies 18 (5): 739–759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hentschel, J., Lanjouw, J., Lanjouw, P., and Poggi, J. (2000), ‘Combining census and survey data to trace the spatial dimensions of poverty: a case study of Ecuador’, World Bank Economic Review 14 (1): 147–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoogeveen, J. (2005), ‘Measuring welfare for small but vulnerable groups: poverty and disability in Uganda’, Journal of African Economies 14 (4): 603–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Q., Wang, R., Ren, Z., Li, J., and Zhang, H. (2007), ‘Regional ecological security assessment based on long periods of ecological footprint analysis’, Resource, Conservation and Recycling 51 (1): 24–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jalan, J. and Ravallion, M. (1998), ‘Are there dynamic gains from poor-area development program’, Journal of Public Economics 67 (1): 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, J. (1992), ‘Rural reforms and agricultural growth in China’, American Economic Review 82 (1): 34–51.Google Scholar
Mistiaen, J., Özler, B., Razafimanantena, T., and Razafindravonona, J. (2002), ‘Putting welfare on the map in Madagascar’, World Bank Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 3, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Okwi, P., Hoogeveen, J., Emwanu, T., Linderhof, V., and Begumana, J. (2005), ‘Welfare and environment in rural Uganda: results from a small-area estimation approach’, PREM Working Paper No. 05-04, available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=849284Google Scholar
Park, A., Wang, S., and Wu, G. (2002), ‘Regional poverty targeting in China’, Journal of Public Economics 86 (1): 123–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravallion, M. (1998), ‘Poor areas’, in Ullah, A. and Giles, D. (eds), Handbook of Applied Economic Statistics, New York: Marcel Dekker, pp. 63–91.Google Scholar
Ravallion, M. and Chen, S. (2007), ‘China's (uneven) progress against poverty’, Journal of Development Economics 82 (1): 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schady, N. (2002), ‘Picking the poor: indicators for geographic targeting in Peru’, Review of Income and Wealth 48 (3): 417–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shorrocks, A. (1984), ‘Inequality decomposition by population subgroup’, Econometrica 52 (6): 1369–1385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suryahadi, A., Widyanti, W., Perwira, D., Sumarto, S., Elbers, C., and Pradhan, M. (2003), ‘Developing a poverty map for Indonesia: an initiatory work in three provinces’, SMERU Research Paper May 2003, Jakarta, Indonesia.Google Scholar
Wang, S. (2004), ‘Poverty targeting in the People's Republic of China’, Asian Development Bank Discussion Paper No. 4, Manila, Philippines.Google Scholar
World Bank (2001), China: Overcoming Rural Poverty, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Olivia Supplementary Material

Olivia Supplementary Appendix

Download Olivia Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 52.6 KB