Poverty persistence among Belgian elderly: true or spurious?

Based upon a longitudinal administrative dataset merged with the Socio-economic Survey of 2001 and the National Register, the majority of the poor elderly in Belgium appear to be persistently poor. The simultaneous estimation of a multiple, spell discrete, time hazard model shows that dependence in poverty is a true phenomenon. It also shows that besides observable characteristics that reduce poverty exit and increase re-entry there are, in addition, unobserved effects that lead to the same kind of poverty persistence. Controlling for unobserved effects and an initial condition problem signifi... Mehr ...