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 | | Poverty -- Economic aspects -- Fiji
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|  | The causes and consequences of intra-household inequality on poverty determination : the case of semi-urban indo-fijian households
Author: Kumar, Sunil.
Institution: University of Queensland
Award: Ph.D.
Subject: Poverty -- Economic aspects -- Fiji
Date: 2008.
Call No.: Pac HC 685 .5 .K86 2008
BRN: 1175708
Copyright:Under 10% of this thesis may be copied without the authors written permission
Abstract: The thesis considers two pertinent questions about poverty in Fiji. One is about the accuracy of the poverty measures calculated by the concerned organisations and this relates to the use of equivalence scales and the general style of analysis. The other more intricate question is the disregard for poverty due to intra-family distribution asymmetries. Such miscalculations of poverty arise due use of average household per capita expenditure to represent consumption. This research attempts to answer the question of whether the tendency to underestimate the incidence of poverty by disregarding intra-family inequality is significant. Furthermore, it attempts to determine the causes of these inequalities. The issue is whether the classical method of data analysis (using the family as a unit) is the ideal way of analysing poverty and distribution in societies where large family structures exist and government relief remains minimal. To determine the household inequalities, household expenditures have been disaggregated into individualised expenditures. The individualised consumption expenditure is analysed and compared with the outcomes of aggregate household expenditure data. The analysis provides overwhelming evidence for underestimation of poverty when household consumption expenditures are used.
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