Human Capital, Employment and Subjective-Objective Poverty: A Micro Case Study of Nepal

TL;DRAbstract

This thesis derives an alternative subjective-objective poverty line (SPL) using self-reported qualitative assessments of perceived adequacy for different categories of consumption namely, food, housing and clothing. Modeling the probability of reporting that actual consumption in each category is adequate, I find that actual measures of consumption are highly significant predictors of perceived consumption adequacy. The perceived adequacy for different consumption components respond more elastically to spending on the corresponding category of goods than to that on other types. The results suggest that the implied subjective poverty lines and regional profiles are different from those predicted by popular objective methods. This thesis also estimates the effects of human capital, employment and basic facilities on household poverty status in Nepal. Delving into this topic seems very policy relevant for the country, where there is a huge need of public education and unemployment insura

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