Poverty and Ethnicity in Asian Countries
Gradín, Carlos | December 2016
Abstract
This paper compares the extent and the nature of the higher prevalence of poverty among disadvantaged ethnic groups in six Asian countries using demographic surveys. We first estimate a composite wealth index as a proxy for economic status, and analyze the magnitude of the ethnic gap in absolute and relative poverty levels across six countries and different ethnicities in those countries. Then, we use regression-based counterfactual analysis for explaining these ethnic differentials in poverty. We compare the actual differential in poverty with the gap that remains after disadvantaged ethnic groups are given the distribution of characteristics of the advantaged ones (by reweighting their densities using propensity scores). Our results show that there is a substantial cross-country variability in the extension, evolution, and nature of the ethnic poverty gap, which is as high as 50 percentage points or more in some specific cases in Nepal, Pakistan, or India. The gap in the latter country increased over the analyzed period, while it was reduced in the Philippines. Our analyses indicate that factors that contribute to ethnic disadvantaged groups being poorer are the strongly persistent high inequalities in education (e.g., India, Nepal, and Pakistan), in regional development (e.g., the Philippines) and the large urban-rural gap (e.g., Pakistan).
Citation
Gradín, Carlos. 2016. Poverty and Ethnicity in Asian Countries. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/6856.Keywords
Development Indicators
Environmental Indicators
Economic Indicators
Educational Indicators
Demographic Indicators
Health Indicators
Disadvantaged Groups
Low Income Groups
Socially Disadvantaged Children
Rural Conditions
Rural Development
Social Conditions
Urban Development
Urban Sociology
Project finance
Resources evaluation
Needs assessment
Cost benefit analysis
Alleviating Poverty
Anti-Poverty
Extreme Poverty
Fight Against Poverty
Global Poverty
Health Aspects Of Poverty
Indicators Of Poverty
Participatory Poverty Assessment
Poverty Eradication
Poverty Analysis
Poverty In Developing Countries
Poverty Reduction Efforts
Urban Poverty
Results-Based Monitoring And Evaluation
Project Evaluation & Review Technique
Performance Evaluation
Impact Evaluation Reports
Evaluation Criteria
Poor
Economic forecasting
Health expectancy
Social groups
Political participation
Distribution of income
Inequality of income
Developing countries
Rural community development
Mass society
Social change
Social policy
Social stability
Population
Sustainable development
Peasantry
Urban policy
Urban renewal
Results mapping
Risk assessment
Participatory monitoring and evaluation
Cost effectiveness
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