Transcript Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan

Poverty (and Social Exclusion)
Measurement in Taiwan
Dr. Daniel He-chiun Liou
Assistant Professor
The Department of Social Work
Asia University Taiwan
Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference
Measuring Poverty: The State of Art
23/01/2011
Profile of Taiwan
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Population: 23,162,123 (2.2% indigenous people)
(2010 data)
Territory: 36,191 km2 (around 1/7 of size of the UK)
Life expectancy: 79 (male 76, female 82) (2010
data)
GDP per capita (ppp): USD 34,743 (IMF 2010 data)
Gini Coefficient: 0.35 (2009 data)
Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Profile of Taiwan
Poverty Rate Comparison
(LIS 60% Median Income)
Poverty Rate %
25
20
15
10
5
0
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Taiwan
UK
Profile of Taiwan
LIS Poverty Rate (60% Median Income)
45
40
35
Poverty Rate
30
25
Overall
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Child
15
Elderly
10
5
0
1981
1986
1991
1995
1997
Year
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
2000
2005
Introduction
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In Taiwan, empirical research addressing the issue
of measuring poverty has been dominated by
measures that:
1.focus on identifying the number and
characteristics of households officially registered
as ‘low-income households’;
2.evaluate the extent of income poverty; or
3.employ the Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Utilities
(FCSU) method (the budget standards method).
There exist very few empirical studies on social exclusion,
and none on living standards (the consensual/social
indicators approach).
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Officially registered ‘Lowincome Households
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Means testing of income:
household income (any non-disabled 16-64 adult
will be assumed a minimum wage, NT$17,280) <
60% of the mean consumption expenditure (NT$
9,829).
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Means testing of savings:
household savings < NT$ 300,000
(for a 4 members household).
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Means testing of real estate:
household property < NT$ 3 million.
Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Official Poverty Rate
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92
19
94
19
96
19
98
20
00
20
02
20
04
20
06
20
08
20
10
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Poverty Rate
(%)
Rate of LIHs
(%)
Relative Income Poverty (1)
• Most Taiwanese scholars employing the
relative income standard adopt certain
fractions of mean or median income or
expenditure as the criteria of poverty.
• Most frequently chosen poverty lines are: 40,
50 or 60 per cent of the median disposable
income, and/or 60 per cent of the mean
consumption expenditure.
Database: The Survey of Family Income and Expenditure (SFIE),
commissioned annually by the government.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Relative Income Poverty (2):
Equivalence Scale
• Unadjusted
• Square
Root of the
Household
Size
• OECD and
OECD
modified
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Budget Standard
Wang, Lue and Ho (2003) and Wang, Ho and Liu
(2008) used the Food, Clothing, Shelter and Utilities
(FCSU) method developed by Citro and Michael (1995)
to calculate the budget of a family with two adults and
two children. Taking into account family size by
applying the equivalence scale, the poverty threshold
for each family type was determined.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Social Exclusion Measurement
in Taiwan
Lee (2007) uses the Database of Taiwan Social
Change Survey (TSCS) of 2002 to investigate six
aspects of social exclusion:
1.low income;
2.unemployment;
3.lack of social interaction;
4.inactive political participation;
5.lack of social-support relationship; and
6.ill health.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Social Exclusion Measurement
in Taiwan
• The exclusions of income and social support were
found to be the two most decisive dimensions in
forming the severely disadvantaged group.
• He also discovered that a relatively low education level,
single marital status and advanced age were the
salient demographic characteristics of the severely
disadvantaged groups.
• However, as TSCS was not initially designed to
operationalise social exclusion, the data generated
from the questionnaire (of TSCS) were insufficient to
investigate the complicated and multi-dimensional
aspects of social exclusion.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Issues on Poverty Measurement
in Taiwan
• The official poverty line (either 60 per cent of the mean
consumption expenditure or 60% of the median
disposable income) is arbitrary. The assumed
minimum wage and other means tests lead to very low
official poverty rates.
• There is no governmental measure to monitor poverty,
nor is there a consensus in the politics on how to
measure poverty.
• Poverty is defined solely on resources/income,
irrespective of the level of people’s actual living
standards.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Recent Attempt to Measure Living
Standards and Social Exclusion
• Daniel He-chiun Liou in 2010 conducted 13 focus
groups, attempting to construct living standards and
social exclusion indicators culturally and socially
relevant to a Taiwanese context.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Indicators of Living Standards:
Necessities
• Food and clothing are the two aspects covered by all
the focus groups.
• Most participants have a clear idea of
acceptable housing or the ‘home environment’.
• The importance of having a permanent
residence was repeatedly emphasised.
• Household facilities such as tap water,
electricity, and gas are also considered very
important for acceptable housing.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Indicators of Living Standards:
Activities
Two broad types of activities appear to be important:
personal recreation and maintaining social relationships.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Indicators of Living Standards:
Activities
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Indicators of Social Exclusion
• Many participants in the public focus groups
had difficulty in comprehending the concept of
social exclusion, because this concept is not
rooted in Chinese/Taiwanese culture.
• However, a majority of the groups were still
able to identify some social elements that could
cause or prevent exclusion, for example,
indifference, isolation, interpersonal
relationships, violence, economic pressures,
poverty, (un)employment, housing, care, love,
sense of security, and health.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Discussions
1.The concept of social citizenship is lacking in
the Taiwanese society.
2.The division between deserving and
undeserving excluded is emphasised.
3.Current discourses of social exclusion have
difficulty of dealing with multicultural issues.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Issue One: Social Citizenship
• Being excluded, for many focus groups, mainly
means the inability to escape the “evils”. For an
insensitive but real example, many urban
groups mentioned that living in an area with the
threat from the mentally ill is an unbearable
circumstance, which is related to the feeling of
being excluded. For the public, the presence of
the mentally ill represents a disturbing “social
problem”, deterring others from participating
in the society.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Issue One: Social Citizenship
• Other “evils” the focus groups mention include
poverty, unemployment, ill health, isolation and
crime, etc.
• An absence of the “evils” is required for not being
excluded; meanwhile the public rarely clarify who
should account for the existence of these
problems.
• Taiwanese public hardly ever connect these
problems to the larger society or to the
government. In other words, the presence of the
“evils” is not considered as a violation of social
rights or citizenship.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Issue Two: Deserving and
Undeserving Excluded
• A division between a deserving exclusion and an
undeserving exclusion is made by the public.
• The deserving excluded generally refer to those who
are disadvantaged, such as the aged, the disabled or
people with a long-term illness.
• However, there are some others who are the
undeserving excluded. Those people who are capable
of working and participating in the society, but they
choose not to belong to this category.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Issue Three: Multicultural
Issues
RED
SID
is primarily concerned with citizenship and social rights.
The social rights “mean the whole range from the right to
a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right
to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life
of a civilised being according to the standards prevailing
in the society” (Marshall, 1950: 10-11).
stresses the prominence of integrating the marginalised
citizens into the larger society.
The social exclusion discourses, either SID or RED, aim to eliminate the
gap in living standards.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Quotation from an Indigenous
Group
What “society” are we talking about? We live in
different societies. Although we are under the same
roof the Republic of China, we indigenous people
have our own society. Even though our society is
small, if we have different value system then we are
separated from the larger society. We often discuss
who construct the (larger) society. Who determine
what our society is?...So what “social” exclusion is
about?
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
Issue Three:
There is a fear that the process of inclusion will be
made at the cost of challenging, or severely diluting,
the core values which are the defining characteristics
of particular ethnic groups.
In a culturally plural society, as one is to evaluate the
extent of social exclusion of a certain cultural minority
group, both a general citizenship component (individual
social rights) and a differential citizenship component
(group rights) must be in place.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan
TAHNK YOU VERY MUCH FOR
LISTENING.
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Poverty (and Social Exclusion) Measurement in Taiwan