1 Introduction
2 Data and Methods
2.1 Data
2.2 Construction of a Composite Poverty Index
Indicator | Prior application | Relation to poverty |
---|---|---|
Safe drinking water | Access to clean water can improve hygiene and general health. Household access to a source of clean water can free up productive time from fetching water | |
Toilet facilities (e.g. flush toilet or pit latrine) | Good sanitation can improve hygiene and general health | |
Cooking fuel | Use of unprocessed solids leads to indoor air pollution, poor respiratory health and is correlated with high accident rates | |
Heating fuel | Qi and Wu (2014) | Indoor air pollution and high accident rates |
Lighting | General housing quality | |
Number of rooms/over-crowding | Several person per sleeping room is related to increased transmission of respiratory illnesses | |
Electricity | General housing quality | |
Floor | General housing quality | |
Wall | General housing quality | |
Dwelling | General housing quality | |
Bicycle/motorcycle | Basic transportation is linked to better access to healthcare and community/social life | |
Car | Transport affects the ability to participate in labor market and society | |
Refrigerator | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets | |
Washing machine | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets | |
TV | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets | |
Computer | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets | |
Telephone | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets | |
Radio | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets | |
Livestock | Household wealth accumulated in durables/assets, may secure basic nutritional needs | |
Education/schooling | Human capital, increased competitiveness on labour market, increased health knowledge | |
Employment | Income source and basis for self-respect and fulfillment | |
Food/hunger |
2.3 Analyses
3 Results
3.1 Descriptive Statistics
Urban | Rural | |
---|---|---|
Continuous variables | ||
Number of children not attending school | M 0.94 | M 0.76 |
Ratio: children attending to children not attending school | M 1.56 | M 2.12 |
Overcrowding: ratio household members per room | M 5.08 | M 3.50 |
Categorical variables | ||
Hunger | ||
Never | 65.2% | 54.4% |
Seldom | 17.6% | 19.6% |
Sometimes | 15.0% | 25.0% |
Often | 2.2% | 1.0% |
Education | ||
No schooling | 2.3% | 36.7% |
Primary school | 15.7% | 37.4% |
Secondary school | 54.2% | 17.7% |
Matric | 26.2% | 7.5% |
University | 1.6% | 0.7% |
Employment | ||
Permanent | 17.9% | 7.3% |
Temporary | 15.2% | 13.5% |
Unemployed | 67.0% | 79.2% |
Binary variables | ||
Meal with meat | 90.9% | 65.4% |
Computer | 10.4% | 2.4% |
TV | 90.0% | 38.1% |
Radio | 88.1% | 62.6% |
Refrigerator | 84.9% | 29.9% |
Drinking source | 87.6% | 26.9% |
Safe water | 98.6% | 82.0% |
Washing machine | 9.5% | 0.3% |
Electricity | 94.5% | 9.9% |
Cooking | 98.9% | 6.6% |
Heating | 61.8% | 1.8% |
Lighting | 93.6% | 6.9% |
Toilet | 84.1% | 2.1% |
Floor | 97.0% | 93.5% |
Wall | 71.6% | 67.5% |
Dwelling | 73.4% | 63.3% |
Phone | 96.1% | 93.2% |
Car | 11.5% | 12.3% |
Bicycle | 5.5% | 5.9% |
Motorcycle | 0.9% | 0.2% |
Cattle or sheep | 0.6% | 11.6% |
Donkey or horse | 0.5% | 0.8% |
N | 1279 | 1197 |
3.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis
Item | Full sample (n = 2353) | Rural sample (n = 1212) | Urban sample (n = 1140) |
---|---|---|---|
Hunger | 0.25 | 0.36 | 0.21 |
Refrigerator | −0.74 | −0.59 | −0.64 |
Phone | −0.15
| −0.15
| −0.18
|
Computer | −0.26 | −0.20 | −0.24 |
Transport | −0.18
| −0.44 | −0.28 |
Meat | −0.42 | −0.36 | −0.25 |
TV | −0.71 | −0.55 | −0.68 |
Radio | −0.45 | −0.36 | −0.44 |
Drinking source | −0.67 | −0.31 | −0.58 |
Safe water | −0.27 | −0.01
| −0.13
|
Washing machine | −0.28 | −0.11
| −0.22 |
Electricity | −0.90 | −0.58 | −0.72 |
Cooking | −0.87 | −0.54 | −0.16
|
Heating | −0.67 | −0.39 | −0.30 |
Lighting | −0.80 | −0.61 | −0.68 |
Toilet | −0.91 | −0.24 | −0.41 |
Floor | −0.18
| −0.25 | −0.20 |
Wall | −0.32 | −0.54 | −0.68 |
Dwelling | −0.39 | −0.55 | −0.66 |
Overcrowding |
0.04
| 0.30 |
0.02
|
Livestock |
0.14
| −0.14
| −0.07
|
Education | −0.61 | −0.36 | −0.21 |
Employment | −0.23 | −0.25 | −0.10
|
Eigenvalues |
6.47
|
3.56
|
4.01
|
% of variance |
75.6
|
67.5
|
60.8
|
αa
|
0.86
|
0.70
|
0.72
|
3.3 Distribution of Poverty
3.4 Structural Equation Model: Multiple Group Comparison
Standardized | Unstandardized | |
---|---|---|
Measurement model | ||
Hunger | 0.19*** | 1 (fixed) |
Meat | −0.38*** | −0.99*** |
Overcrowding | 0.04** | 1.96** |
Computer | −0.22*** | −0.33*** |
Transport | −0.11*** | −0.24*** |
TV | −0.67*** | −2.00*** |
Radio | −0.41*** | −1.09*** |
Refrigerator | −0.70*** | −2.13*** |
Drinking source | −0.69*** | −2.10*** |
Electricity | −0.90*** | −2.80*** |
Cooking | −0.91*** | −2.84*** |
Heating | −0.69*** | −2.00*** |
Lighting | −0.92*** | −2.85*** |
Toilet | −0.82*** | −2.50*** |
Floor | −0.14*** | −0.19*** |
Wall | −0.20*** | −0.57*** |
Dwelling | −0.27*** | −0.77*** |
Education | −0.60*** | −3.78*** |
Employment | −0.21*** | −0.90*** |
Covariances | ||
Error.meat with error.hunger | −0.24*** | −0.08*** |
Error.electricity with error.lighting | 0.64*** | 0.03*** |
Error.floor with error.dwelling | 0.05*** | 0.01*** |
Error.wall with error.dwelling | 0.72*** | 0.14*** |
Error.education with error.employment | 0.13*** | 0.07* |
Goodness of fit | ||
χ2
| 2455.108*** | |
CFI | 0.83 | |
RMSEA | 0.08 | |
SRMR | 0.90 |
Model | χ2
| CFI | RMSEA | SRMR |
---|---|---|---|---|
Configural invariance | 2198.289
p < 0.001 | 0.83 | 0.07 | 0.06 |
Metric invariance | 2641.092
p < 0.001 | 0.79 | 0.08 | 0.09 |
Scalar invariance | 12,112.490
p < 0.001 | 0.00 | 0.17 | 0.30 |
Urban (N = 1144) | Rural (N = 1212) | |
---|---|---|
Measurement model | ||
Hunger | 0.21*** | 0.34*** |
Meat | −0.27*** | −0.35*** |
Overcrowding | 0.01 | 0.28*** |
Computer | −0.20*** | −0.20*** |
Transport | −0.24*** | −0.46*** |
TV | −0.76*** | −0.57*** |
Radio | −0.49*** | −0.38*** |
Refrigerator | −0.71*** | −0.62*** |
Drinking source | −1.11*** | −0.32*** |
Electricity | −0.65*** | −0.51*** |
Cooking | −0.08*** | −0.54*** |
Heating | −0.84*** | −0.40*** |
Lighting | −0.60*** | −0.54*** |
Toilet | −0.33*** | −0.23*** |
Floor | −0.17*** | −0.23*** |
Wall | −0.56*** | −0.43*** |
Dwelling | −0.53*** | −0.45*** |
Education | −0.18*** | −0.37*** |
Employment | −0.09*** | −0.27*** |
Covariances | ||
Error.meat with error.hunger | −0.17*** | −0.22*** |
Error.electricity with error.lighting | 0.82*** | 0.63*** |
Error.floor with error.dwelling | 0.04 | 0.05* |
Error.wall with error.dwelling | 0.68*** | 0.64*** |
Error.education with error.employment | 0.19*** | 0.07* |
Goodness of fit | ||
χ2
| 2198.29*** | |
CFI | 0.83 | |
RMSEA | 0.07 | |
SRMR | 0.06 |