Guatamela Poverty Assessment Report Mathematics & Economics Essay (Essay Sample)

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Guatemala Poverty Assessment Report
Question One
The Guatemala data set presents a breakdown of the population’s per capita income in the indigenous, non-indigenous, urban, and rural population categories. The basic headcount calculation indicates that the country has made some progress in eliminating poverty (Table 1). There is evidence of progressive change over the years despite the significant population difference for the years 2000 (10,960,000) and 2010 (11,390,000) which recorded H0 as 4274400 and 4100400 respectively. The rural areas show the highest headcount with 3.26million people earning an average per capita of $296.32 annually. On the other hand, the average per capita income of the non-poor has regressed by $50.7 since 2000 and now stands at $2802.73 per annum in 2010.
Table 1. Primary poverty assessment table
Question Two
A thorough analysis of the dataset reveals more insightful information pertaining to the poverty situation in Guatemala. Table 1 confirms that the year 2010 had better poverty performance than the year 2000 showing a decrease of 0.03 units on the headcount ratio. Evidently, Guatemala has managed to reduce the poverty gap which was witnessed in 2000. Consequently, the poverty gap index of 2010 is smaller from that of 2000 by 0.0189. In this case, the analysis reveals that the indigenous population has the highest poverty gap index at 0.2162 followed by the rural population at 0.1893. These figures are reflected in the poverty severity index, P2, which illustrates a decrease in the value between 2000 and 2010 (Jonathan and Shahidu 72).