Chronic poverty in urban Ethiopia: panel data evidence

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Abstract
There are good reasons to think that a substantial proportion of urban poverty is likely to be chronic or persistent in nature, but to date there has been limited quantitative evidence to back up this assertion due to a lack of data tracking the same households over time. In this paper, we analyse a three-wave panel data set in urban Ethiopia over the mid-1990 s. Our results indicate that there is a high level of chronic poverty, and that those who are chronically poor show distinct characteristics that are likely to be important factors underlying their chronic poverty. These include high household dependency rates; low levels of education; lack of asset ownership; and insecure, low return or no employment.