The dissertation explores the complex interplay between financial scarcity and its psychological effects, shedding light on its impact on decision-making, avoidance behavior, and perceived control.... Show moreThe dissertation explores the complex interplay between financial scarcity and its psychological effects, shedding light on its impact on decision-making, avoidance behavior, and perceived control. Through a series of experiments, we found that financial scarcity increases temporal discounting, indicating a tendency to prioritize immediate gains over future outcomes. A longitudinal study revealed a reciprocal relationship over time between financial scarcity and avoidance behavior, hinting at the existence of a psychological poverty trap. Furthermore, an experiment demonstrated that financial scarcity increases the tendency to delay bill payments. However, evidence regarding attentional disengagement from financial stressors, assessed with an eye-tracker, remained inconclusive. A global survey spanning 51 societies confirmed the negative link between financial scarcity and perceived control, but also uncovered significant cross-cultural variations. Surprisingly, in societies with lower welfare provisions and institutional quality, the negative relationship between financial scarcity and control was weaker. Likewise, collectivist and traditional values seemed to buffer against the negative effect of financial scarcity on control. The dissertation informs about the psychological reality of dealing with problematic household finances and its consequences on decisions. Show less
Most European Roma and Sinti achieve such low levels of education that they have basically no chance of moving up the social ladder. This study compares the educational positions of Roma and Sinti... Show moreMost European Roma and Sinti achieve such low levels of education that they have basically no chance of moving up the social ladder. This study compares the educational positions of Roma and Sinti in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, based on more than fifty biographical interviews with Roma and Sinti.Compared to the Netherlands, the poverty and social segregation among Czech Roma is more severe. Discrimination and racism against Czech Roma are virulent and ubiquitous. Yet, Roma and Sinti in the Netherlands have developed a similar suspicion of people outside their own circle and a similar negative attitude towards education, in response to their common history of deprivation, expulsion and even twice a genocide, in the eighteenth century and in the Second World War.Those Roma and Sinti who did receive an education were no longer seen as Roma or Sinti. This is why the highly educated did not function as role models until recently. Yet, this study shows there is a cautious turnaround. In both countries, the Roma and Sinti parents of the young generation of highly educated people, often low-educated themselves, had come to regard better education as the only way towards a better life. Show less
Carbon taxes are an economically effective and efficient policy measure to address climate change mitigation. However, they can have severe adverse distributional effects. Recycling parts of the... Show moreCarbon taxes are an economically effective and efficient policy measure to address climate change mitigation. However, they can have severe adverse distributional effects. Recycling parts of the fiscal revenues to vulnerable, lower income households through cash transfers (social assistance) is an option to also overcome associated political difficulties. This paper simulates the distributional impacts of such a combined policy reform in Peru. In a first step, we assess the distributional impacts of varying carbon tax rates. In a second step, we evaluate different scenarios of recycling revenues through existing or expanded transfer schemes towards vulnerable households. The results indicate that a national carbon tax, without compensation, would increase poverty but have no significant impact on inequality. When tax revenues are recycled through transfer schemes, however, poverty would actually decrease. Depending on the amount to be redistributed and the design of the cash transfer scheme, our simulations show a proportional reduction in the poverty headcount of up to around 17%. In addition, the paper underlines how crucial it is to go beyond aggregate measures of poverty to better identify losers from such reform; and assure that the "leave no one behind" principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is addressed. Show less
This book showcases new research by emerging and established scholars on white workers and the white poor in Southern Africa. Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa challenges the... Show moreThis book showcases new research by emerging and established scholars on white workers and the white poor in Southern Africa. Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa challenges the geographical and chronological limitations of existing scholarship by presenting case studies from Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe that track the fortunes of nonhegemonic whites during the era of white minority rule. Arguing against prevalent understandings of white society as uniformly wealthy or culturally homogeneous during this period, it demonstrates that social class remained a salient element throughout the twentieth century, how Southern Africa’s white societies were often divided and riven with tension and how the resulting social, political and economic complexities animated white minority regimes in the region. Addressing themes such as the class-based disruption of racial norms and practices, state surveillance and interventions – and their failures – towards nonhegemonic whites, and the opportunities and limitations of physical and social mobility, the book mounts a forceful argument for the regional consideration of white societies in this historical context. Centrally, it extends the path-breaking insights emanating from scholarship on racialized class identities from North America to the African context to argue that race and class cannot be considered independently in Southern Africa. Show less
Sustainable economic development is essential for hundreds of millions of poor households in rural areas. This book represents a merger of environmental science and rural development economics. It... Show moreSustainable economic development is essential for hundreds of millions of poor households in rural areas. This book represents a merger of environmental science and rural development economics. It elucidates the linkage between rational choice theory and theories on land use change. It builds a quantitative framework to connect the environmental method of Material Flow Analysis to basic issues of rural development such as agricultural intensification and food security. And finally, it develops a unique measuring rod of wealth and poverty called Freely Disposable Time, which integrates time and cash flows of households. With this indicator, we can quantify the much-cherished concepts of freedoms and development capacity. Along the way, the book provides critical discussions on ‘standard’ Material Flow Analysis, systems versus actor-based approaches, and the oversupply of inductive studies in land use and development science. Empirical data are drawn from the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Laos and the Netherlands, in a comparative perspective. Show less
This book provides an overview of the conditions facing the urban poor in Khartoum, Sudan and explores the opportunities and constraints people of different genders, ages, wealth and social origins... Show moreThis book provides an overview of the conditions facing the urban poor in Khartoum, Sudan and explores the opportunities and constraints people of different genders, ages, wealth and social origins face in the pursuant of their livelihoods. Using an in-depth analysis, it argues that the livelihoods of poor people have been severely constrained by both formal and informal institutions that have not allowed them to access capitals and choose the way they utilize those they have. Show less
Until recently, the trend in development policy circles has been to focus on the question of poverty, and to suggest that inequality is interesting, but that perhaps it really does not matter. In... Show moreUntil recently, the trend in development policy circles has been to focus on the question of poverty, and to suggest that inequality is interesting, but that perhaps it really does not matter. In the 2007 Wertheim Lecture, Jomo K.S. re-examined the role inequality plays in development and human welfare. Show less
Brons, J.; Dietz, A.J.; Niehof, A.; Witsenburg, K. 2007
