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on Central and South America |
| By: | Pérez Urdiales, María; Tojal Ramos Dos Santos, Carolina |
| Abstract: | Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries have made notable progress in reducing income inequality; however, the extent to which water and sanitation may foster inequalities remains unclear. In this sector, disparities emerge as lower-income households may encounter reduced access to clean water, utilize less water, or bear a disproportionately higher financial burden than higher-income households. In this paper, we investigate latter source of inequality in the water and sanitation sector in LAC. We analyze and compare inequality measures for water expenditures and income for Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay using survey data from the Americas Barometer of the Latin American Opinion Project (LAPOP). Our descriptive analysis indicates that low-income households allocate a larger proportion of their income to water expenditures compared to high-income households. By comparing the water concentration curve to the Lorenz curve for each country, we find that water expenditures are generally more equitably distributed than income, leading to an unequalizing effect, as households spend similar amounts regardless of income level. Additionally, we demonstrate that total water expenditures, encompassing tap water, bottled water, and water delivered by trucks, align more closely with income distribution than tap water alone in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Uruguay, whereas the opposite is true for Colombia. These disparities may be attributed to water tariff subsidies and the higher consumption of bottled water among wealthier households. |
| Keywords: | water security;sustainable development;tariffs;subsidies;Equality |
| JEL: | Q25 Q21 O54 O13 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13828 |
| By: | Chang, Jillie; Evans, David Kirkham; Rivas Herrera, Carolina |
| Abstract: | Poverty continues to challenge Latin American and Caribbean countries, with approximately one in three people in the region in poverty and one in seven in extreme poverty. This paper provides up-to-date insights through analysis of who the poor are, where they are located, and how they live in the region. First, it uses a large collection of household surveys that extend through 2023 to characterize the poor. It examines (1) how many people in the region are poor, (2) how the poor are distributed geographically within and across countries, (3) how poverty affects specific groups (e.g., women, children, Afro-descendants, and Indigenous people), (4) how much of the poverty in the region is chronic and how much is transitory, and (5) how poverty numbers have changed over time. Second, it identifies how the extreme and chronically poor live relative to others in their same countries, providing insights into policy responses. Specifically, it discusses (6) the living arrangements of the poor, (7) the assets they have access to, (8) how they earn their incomes, (9) how they access human capital services such as education and health, and (10) what access they have to social programs. While this analysis is descriptive, it may be useful both for targeting efforts and for generating new hypotheses for poverty reduction that can subsequently be tested causally. |
| Keywords: | Poverty;Development;Latin America and the Caribbean |
| JEL: | I25 J20 O10 O12 O15 O18 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13827 |