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Mapping poverty in rural China: how much does the environment matter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2011

SUSAN OLIVIA ,
JOHN GIBSON ,
SCOTT ROZELLE ,
JIKUN HUANG  and
XIANGZHENG DENG
SUSAN OLIVIA*
Affiliation:
Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. Email: [email protected]
JOHN GIBSON
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]
SCOTT ROZELLE
Affiliation:
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Email: [email protected]
JIKUN HUANG
Affiliation:
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Email: [email protected]
XIANGZHENG DENG
Affiliation:
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Email: [email protected]
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

A recently developed small area estimation technique is used to geographically derive detailed estimates of consumption-based poverty and inequality in rural Shaanxi, China. These estimates may be helpful for targeting since there is wide variability in poverty rates within Shaanxi but low levels of inequality within most counties and townships. We also investigate whether including environmental variables in the equation used to predict consumption and poverty improves upon typical approaches that only use household survey and census data. Ignoring environmental variables appears likely to produce targeting errors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 129 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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