Differences and dynamics of multidimensional poverty in rural China from multiple perspectives analysis

doi:10.1007/s11442-022-2002-9

Abstract

Abstract:

Absolute poverty was completely eliminated in China in 2020. However, poverty measured by income does not fully reflect the actual situation. This paper analyses multidimensional poverty and its dynamics in rural China from perspectives of region, terrain, and geographical location during 2010-2018. We use the Chinese Family Panel Survey data, adopt the Alkire-Foster method and improve the multidimensional poverty index (MPI), calculating and comparing multidimensional poverty and its dynamics among 3009 rural households. In addition, the contribution of the indicator to multidimensional poverty is decomposed. The results indicate that multidimensional poverty has obvious regional differences, topographical differences, and geographical differences. Moreover, the targeted poverty alleviation policy has a significant impact on multidimensional poverty eradication, and the rate of decline of the MPI during 2016-2018 is significantly greater than that of 2010-2014. Education contributes more than 50% to the MPI. In general, the proportion of households with persistent multidimensional poverty is higher than temporary multidimensional poverty, and temporary multidimensional poverty is higher than no multidimensional poverty. These results obtained from a large scale, long time and multiple perspectives could offer new insights for the government to further consolidate the results of poverty alleviation while offering China’s experience to other developing countries.

Key words: multidimensional poverty, dynamics, regional differences, geographical location differences, topographical differences, rural China

WANG Bingbing, LUO Qing, CHEN Guangping, ZHANG Zhe, JIN Pingbin. Differences and dynamics of multidimensional poverty in rural China from multiple perspectives analysis[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2022, 32(7): 1383-1404.

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Dimension	Indicator	Deprivation threshold	Weight
Economy	Per capita income	The family’s annual per capita income is less than 2300 yuan¹(¹Price adjusted calculation was made for family’s per capita income from 2012 to 2018, using 2010 as the base period), assigned a value of 1, otherwise it is 0.	1/4
Education	Years of education	The average years of education of the family over 16 years old is less than 9, assigned a value of 1, otherwise it is 0.	1/4
Health	Chronic diseases	If there is a chronic disease among family members, the value is 1, otherwise it is 0.	1/8
Health	Self-rated health	There are health self-assessments among family members, “Unhealthy”, “Relatively unhealthy” and “Very unhealthy” assigned a value of 1, otherwise it is 0.	1/8
Living standard	Cooking fuel	Household cooking fuel is mainly non-clean energy such as firewood and coal, assigned a value of 1, otherwise it is 0.	1/12
	Housing type	Family housing is not a house type such as “bungalows”, “unit houses”, “small buildings”, “villas”, “townhouses and courtyard houses”, assigned the value is 1, otherwise it is 0	1/12
	Drinking water	Drinking water types are “river and lake water”, “rain water”, “pond water” and “cellar water”, etc. The clean water sources are not available, assigned a value of 1, otherwise it is 0.	1/12

Year	k	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8
2010	H (%)	72.0	43.0	28.0	13.0	9.1	2.0
	A	0.48	0.57	0.64	0.73	0.76	0.85
	M₀	0.34	0.25	0.18	0.09	0.07	0.02
2012	H (%)	65.9	38.9	24.2	10.5	6.8	0.9
	A	0.47	0.56	0.62	0.72	0.75	0.87
	M₀	0.31	0.22	0.15	0.08	0.05	0.01
2014	H (%)	61.4	34.0	21.8	8.5	5.1	0.9
	A	0.46	0.55	0.62	0.71	0.75	0.87
	M₀	0.28	0.19	0.13	0.06	0.04	0.01
2016	H (%)	58.9	31.4	20.5	7.5	4.6	1.1
	A	0.46	0.56	0.61	0.72	0.76	0.86
	M₀	0.27	0.17	0.13	0.05	0.04	0.01
2018	H (%)	48.5	23.6	18.3	5.4	3.5	0.9
	A	0.45	0.56	0.60	0.72	0.76	0.85
	M₀	0.22	0.13	0.11	0.04	0.03	0.01

Region	Terrain			Geographical location (mins)
Region	Plain	Hill	Mountain	0-15	15-30	30-60	>60
East	375	286	58	75	183	358	103
Central	463	231	96	56	274	330	130
West	117	517	443	39	211	253	574
Northeast	180	192	51	41	63	220	99
China	1135	1226	648	211	731	1161	906

	Region	2010	2012	2014	2016	2018	Average
H (%)	East	57.6	53.1	49.1	44.7	36.4	48.2
	Central	69.2	58.6	56.1	53.0	40.8	55.6
	West	84.5	78.7	74.4	72.6	61.4	74.3
	Northeast	69.7	68.8	59.3	58.9	50.6	61.5
A	East	0.46	0.46	0.46	0.45	0.44	0.45
	Central	0.46	0.47	0.45	0.46	0.47	0.46
	West	0.51	0.48	0.47	0.46	0.44	0.47
	Northeast	0.44	0.42	0.42	0.44	0.44	0.43
M₀	East	0.27	0.24	0.22	0.20	0.16	0.22
	Central	0.32	0.28	0.25	0.24	0.19	0.26
	West	0.43	0.38	0.35	0.33	0.27	0.35
	Northeast	0.30	0.29	0.25	0.26	0.22	0.26

	Terrain	2010	2012	2014	2016	2018	Average
H (%)	Plain	63.1	55.6	50.7	49.6	38.5	51.5
	Hill	73.1	67.8	64.1	59.8	49.0	62.8
	Mountain	88.8	83.7	77.0	75.0	65.9	78.1
A	Plain	0.45	0.45	0.45	0.44	0.45	0.45
	Hill	0.48	0.46	0.45	0.46	0.44	0.46
	Mountain	0.52	0.50	0.48	0.47	0.45	0.48
M₀	Plain	0.28	0.25	0.23	0.22	0.17	0.23
	Hill	0.35	0.31	0.29	0.27	0.22	0.29
	Mountain	0.46	0.41	0.37	0.35	0.30	0.38