A multidimensional approach to child poverty in Vietnam

Abstract

In this study, multidimensional child poverty in Vietnam is approached using Young Lives Round 3 dataset. In total, 2898 children were analyzed after missing observations were taken out. Six dimensions with 16 indicators were selected based on previous researches, public consensus and data availability. These dimensions are: Education, Health, Nutrition, Shelter, Child Work and Leisure. The Alkire and Foster (2011a) counting approach is applied to create multidimensional child poverty index and break down application is used for measuring the depth and intensity of child poverty. When the poverty cut off point is set at level k=0.3, 30% of children were identified to be in multidimensional poor. The shelter dimension contributes most deprived indicators to overall multidimensional child poverty rate while child insurance draws slightly attention due to its contribution to overal rate followed the shelter indications. With respect to regional disparity, this is specially critical in upland northern region where children are greatly affected by multidimensional poverty. Using poverty line from the cut off point, logistic regression model was carried out to determine major factors that causes overall multidimensional poverty. Household characteristics including parents’ education, employment and household income have significant impact on poverty rate and effect high transition probabilities for the child moving into and out of multidimensional poor condition.