Who is Poorer? : Poverty by Age in the Developing World
This note shows that based on headcount poverty rates, at the household level, households with elderly members are roughly equally poor to non-elderly households, though with variation when using more detailed compositions, and the elderly are less...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26567326/poorer-poverty-age-developing-world http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24992 |
| Summary: | This note shows that based on headcount
poverty rates, at the household level, households with
elderly members are roughly equally poor to non-elderly
households, though with variation when using more detailed
compositions, and the elderly are less poor than children in
98 percent of the countries sampled when comparing different
age groups. Further, as a share of the poor, elderly average
only 10 percent, children 36 percent, and adults 54 percent.
Moderate equivalence adjustments result in a four percentage
point change in the number of countries with children better
off than elderly. (A separate note provides detailed
sensitivity analysis). These results can be seen as a
starting point for further analysis that would look at the
reasons behind differences between countries as well as age
sub-groups within countries. The findings provide
preliminary evidence that households with elderly, and
especially elderly individuals are often not the most poor.
The analysis is relevant to countries considering new
policies or reforms of existing programs targeting
particular age groups, such as the elderly or children. |
|---|