The Relationship Between Chronic Poverty and Household Dynamics: Evidence from Indonesia

27 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2010

See all articles by Wenefrida Widyanti

Wenefrida Widyanti

The Social Monitoring & Early Response Unit Research Institute (SMERU)

Asep Suryahadi

The Social Monitoring & Early Response Unit Research Institute (SMERU)

Sudarno Sumarto

SMERU Research Institute

Athia Yumna

The Social Monitoring & Early Response Unit Research Institute (SMERU)

Date Written: January 15, 2010

Abstract

Households change composition frequently through births, deaths, divorces, marriages, the departure of children from home, and other compositional changes. Consequently, a large number of people undergo some fundamental change in household arrangement during relatively short periods of time. However, using data from Indonesia, this study finds that household composition change is not a major cause of chronic poverty. Similarly, it finds no evidence that households change their composition to cope with negative shocks. Nevertheless, it confirms that the larger the number of household members, the higher the probability of a household being chronically poor. Comparing between different types of households, single female without children households have the lowest probability of being either chronically poor or vulnerable, while single male with or without children households have the highest probability of being vulnerable. The frequent changes in household composition imply that the use of the household as the unit of analysis for poverty may undermine, or at least complicate, the conceptualisation and measurement of chronic poverty. This also implies that the problem of targeting social protection programmes is not only implementational in nature, but also has some conceptual roots.

Keywords: household composition, chronic poverty, social protection, Indonesia, panel data

Suggested Citation

Widyanti, Wenefrida and Suryahadi, Asep and Sumarto, Sudarno and Yumna, Athia, The Relationship Between Chronic Poverty and Household Dynamics: Evidence from Indonesia (January 15, 2010). Chronic Poverty Research Centre Working Paper No. 132, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1537080 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1537080

Wenefrida Widyanti (Contact Author)

The Social Monitoring & Early Response Unit Research Institute (SMERU) ( email )

Jl. Cikini Raya No. 10A
Jakarta 10310, 10330
Indonesia

Asep Suryahadi

The Social Monitoring & Early Response Unit Research Institute (SMERU) ( email )

Jl. Cikini Raya No. 10A
Jakarta, 10330
Indonesia
+62-21-31936336 (Phone)
+62-21-31930850 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.smeru.or.id

Sudarno Sumarto

SMERU Research Institute ( email )

Jl. Tulung Agung No. 46
Jakarta, 10310
Indonesia

Athia Yumna

The Social Monitoring & Early Response Unit Research Institute (SMERU) ( email )

Jl. Cikini Raya No. 10A
Jakarta 10310, 10330
Indonesia

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