1. Sara Hsu

2.  Poverty measurement has changed from one of relative income gaps to multidimensional indices of poverty.  Recent theory suggests that poverty is not merely a measure of how much money a household takes in, but also of individuals’ well- being or capabilities (Amartya Sen).  Poor are distinct group created by production relations according to one theory.

3.  Transient v chronic poverty theory: transient poor are those who can be classified as poor in some periods and not in others.  Ravallion (1988) finds an expected value of a poverty measure which results from changes in a welfare indicator.  Inequality persists due to credit market imperfections.  Quality of institutions impact distribution and vice versa.

4.  Galor and Zeira: the economy converges to different levels of wealth for skilled and unskilled workers, depending on initial conditions of wealth.

5.  Home to 20% of world’s poorest  Found in rural areas, lower castes  Child malnutrition  Farmer suicides  Agricultural policies-liberalization and cutting subsidies  Land redistribution  Lack of property titles makes borrowing against land difficult

6.  Poverty reduction hard to determine from data: different interpretations of the poverty statistics, Deaton and Dreze (2002) proposed an adjustment that would allow the 55th round of surveying by the National Sample Survey Organization to be comparable to the 50th, and find overall poverty estimates similar to official estimates, but a higher poverty gap between urban and rural areas.

7.  Liberalization gave rise to new middle class  Growth has been concentrated in skilled sectors  Inequality reduces popular support for growth process, reduces opportunities  Rural casual labor large segment of work force  Gini coefficient  Women also face gender discrimination

9.  Eliminated most extreme poverty, but still many are quite poor  Problem with reported statistics-poverty may be understated  Rural phenomenon that leads to undernutrition and vice versa: household responsibility system helped alleviate in 1980s but slowed in 1990s

10.  Urban phenomenon (rural migrants)  Thin land markets and administrative reallocation of land, such that farmers cannot sell land

11.  Communism and equality: most people were poor  Issue in nineties with privatization, urban areas opened up to trade  Inland-coastal disparity, particularly in mid- 1990s as agricultural productivity declined  Disparity between urban and rural, women and men, educated and uneducated  Government policies-spending inland

13.  Peasants in Tokugawa close to starvation  Meiji restoration eliminated unequal feudal system, but poverty remained problem for lower classes  Poor: fishermen, small tenant farmers, small merchants, beggars  Masana Maeda classified social structure: superior, intermediate, and inferior  Poor lacked food and clothing

14.  Inferior group classified as spending half income on rice  Qualification for public relief in Meiji period through 1930s was half inferior standard  Poor lived in ghettos in unsanitary conditions, eating leftover food  Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923 burned down ghettos, led to reconstruction  1930s: workers formed labor unions

15.  Gender bias in female-male wage gap  Increasing inequality, early 20 th century  Lagging productivity in rural sector  Relatively equal from WWII through 1970s: economic democratization installed by Allies  Increase in inequality in 1980s  Gender inequality-bias toward male workers through WWII  Aging society

18.  Integrated Rural Development Program in 1970s: goal to provide credit and training, but laborers lacked sufficient ability to run their own businesses, banks unwilling to lend  Replaced by Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) in 1999, which strove to assist self-help groups rather than individuals  Wage employment programs under the National Rural Employment Programme and the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programmes-to improve employment in lean agricultural seasons.  National Social Assistance Program in 1995 provided old- age pensions, family benefits to widows, and subsidies to pregnant women living in poverty

19.  Households responsibility System  First poverty alleviation program in 1986: targeting poor counties through grants, loans and projects  “Food for Work” from 1986 to 1997 focused on building up infrastructure  “Grain for Green”-farmers paid to convert grassland to forest  Minimum Living Standard funded by city

20.  1874-Relief Regulations: government issued relief to people 13 years and older who were chronically ill and those who were 70 years of age or older  Relief and Protection Law enacted in 1929 sought to provide benefits for medical care, childbirth expenses, occupational rehabilitation, and funeral costs for unemployed with no family.  Japan’s Daily Life Security Law of 1946 provided financial aid to households in the form of monthly living allowances, housing allowances, medical assistance, and scholarships to children, and still forms the basis for public assistance policy

21.  Law promotes caste equality  However caste inequality is often preserved  Redistribution of land to landless started in 1949, but progress slowed in 1970s

22.  Hand- in- Hand Aid was also implemented to pair different regions or industries together based on the needs and advantages of the pair.  East–West Interaction policy promoted the flow of production factors from region to region  Annual Number One Policy Documents have pledged to increase farmers’ incomes, improve agricultural production, build a “new countryside,” develop modern agriculture, resolve rural problems, stabilize agricultural prices, and promote rural development

23.  General Mobilization Act, which regulated rents, dividends, wages, and bonuses from 1939 to 1945.  Property tax rates also became heavy and more progressive between 1946 and 1951  Occupation policies also reduced inequality through land redistributions in 1947–50 and the dissolution of zaibatsu in 1948

24.  All three countries have struggled with poverty and inequality during the reform process  Poverty alleviation policies have sought to reduce poverty in all three countries, with varying levels of success.