Poverty

SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011
Gini Coefficient – measure of income inequality
G=0 – perfect equality
G≈1 – max inequality

SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011

SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011

Charles Booth
1840-1916
Labour & Life of the People
1886-1903
The Condition of the Working Class in England 1845

To maximize profit &
compensate inefficient organization of production business tend to minimize wages

“rents”

Poverty can provoke social disorder

Poverty reduces chances of children for development and achievement

East End
3400 streets
Survey
Research and policy questions:
Who are the poor (how do we define poverty)?
Who became poor?
Who are responsible for the position of the poor?
What is to be done?

School Board Visitors as guides
Volunteers who helped to check if children attended school

Detailed household survey

А:

A - lowest class - some occasional labourers, street-sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals - 1.25%
B – casual earnings - very poor – 11.2%
С – intermittent earnings - 8.3%
the “poor”- 35,2%
D – small regular earnings - 14.5 %
E - artisans and regular wage-earners - 42%
G – lower middle – 3.9 %
H – upper middle – 5%
Invented “poverty line” concept – 1 GBP = food, housing, clothing + basic spending

Benjamin S. Rowntree
Poverty, A Study of Town Life (1901)
POVERTY LINE DEFINITION by Rowntree
Minimum physical efficiency of a worker
Food: idealized adequate diet suggested by contemporary physicians
+
2) Expenditures on housing (rent)
+
3) Everyday expenditures (clothing, fluel. etc.)
= min income = poverty line
Actual income
Regular earnings
Rent
Incidental earnings
Platt 2014 Poverty Studies and Social Research

Primary = absolute poverty
Lack of fundamental requirements for human existence (9,9 % of York population)
Secondary = relative poverty
Inability to meet overall standards of living that prevails in a given society
(27,8 % of York population)
Poverty is a mismatch between family income & family needs
Poverty is caused not by lack of household management but by lack of income
(Platt 2014 Poverty Studies and Social Research )

Absolute & relative poverty
Basic needs VS. comparatives disadvantage

Rowntree. Poverty: A Study of Town Life, 1902, p.137
Poverty & Lifecycle

SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011
EU definition of poverty
Poor - household living on or below 60% (earlier 50%) of median income

Income inequality among squirrels ;)

Mean is a bad model

Median is better

POVERTY REMAINS WIDESPRED
SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011

SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011

SOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011:
OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS. OECD 2011

Absolute & relative poverty
Basic needs VS. comparative disadvantage

Giddens 2009