Estimating Poverty for Indigenous Groups in Chile by Matching Census and Survey Data

37 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2008

See all articles by Claudio A. Agostini

Claudio A. Agostini

Universidad Adolfo Ibañez

Phil Brown

GeoSource Capital Solutions

Andrei Roman

Colby College - Department of Economics

Date Written: August 1, 2008

Abstract

It is widely held that indigenous Chileans experience greater rates of poverty and indigence than non-indigenous Chileans, yet the evidence to date has been based on surveys that are not representative by ethnicity. In this paper, we use poverty mapping methodologies that are typically applied to geography to develop statistically precise estimates of poverty, indigence, poverty gaps, and indigence gaps for each of the eight indigenous groups recognized by Chilean law. We find that indigenous people experience higher rates of poverty and indigence and greater depth of poverty and indigence than non-indigenous people. These results hold within individual regions, suggesting that the differential access to economic opportunities in different parts of the country cannot fully explain the results. We also find that the burden of poverty is not shared equally across indigenous groups. Instead, the Mapuche and Aymara experience disproportionately high poverty rates. We argue that including ethnicity in criteria for identifying poor households may help policy-makers to improve antipoverty targeting.

Keywords: Poverty, Indigence, Ethnicity, Poverty Mapping, Chile

JEL Classification: 01

Suggested Citation

Agostini, Claudio A. and Brown, Phil and Roman, Andrei, Estimating Poverty for Indigenous Groups in Chile by Matching Census and Survey Data (August 1, 2008). William Davidson Institute Working Paper No. 932, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1311488 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1311488

Claudio A. Agostini (Contact Author)

Universidad Adolfo Ibañez ( email )

Diagonal Las Torres 2640
Santiago
Chile
(562)3311130 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.uai.cl/profesores/claudio-agostini

Phil Brown

GeoSource Capital Solutions ( email )

PO Box 535
Charles Town, WV 25414
United States

Andrei Roman

Colby College - Department of Economics ( email )

Waterville, ME 04901
United States

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