Poverty and Poverty Dynamics in Rural Ethiopia

Poverty in rural Ethiopia is vast by any standard. Using the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey (ERHS), which is a panel data set consisting of four rounds between 1994 and 1997, this analysis aims to examine the broad trends in poverty by calculating and decomposing poverty measures of the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke class, as well as to analyse the correlates of poverty by means of regression trees. Furthermore, in an attempt to determine how and why some households experience changes in their poverty status over time, the poverty dynamics of households is studied according to both the spells and the components approaches. Here the distinction is made between transient and chronic poor, and regression analysis is employed to determine whether the endowments and characteristics of these groups differ.