A LOGISTIC REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY: A CASE STUDY OF AIZAWL DISTRICT OF MIZORAM, INDIA

Abstract

In this paper, we examine poverty in the state of Mizoram, India by taking the case of Aizawl district based on the method of Alkire-Foster counting approach. We also assess the determinants of such poverty using binary logistic regression model by considering household characteristics such as dependency ratio, age, education of the household head, household size and size of agricultural landholdings as explanatory variables. We found that 28.4 percent of the population is MPI poor (i.e. headcount ratio) with a 38.2 percent intensity of poverty (A). The overall MPI in the study area is 0.10. The findings of the study are very close to the findings of Alkire et.al (2015), who estimated the headcount ratio, intensity of poverty, and MPI to be 30.8 percent, 45.1 percent, and 0.139 respectively based on the National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3).

The estimated logistic regression also showed that the household size, dependency ratio, age of the household head, and education level of the household head were significant determinants of poverty in the study area. The findings of this study agree with those of previous studies such as Datt (1998) Al-Saleh (2000), Ajakaiye and Adeyeye, (2002), Osowole, Asif (2007), Babu, & Sanyal (2009), etc. However, the size of agricultural landholdings is not a significant determinant of multidimensional poverty in the study area, which is contrary to the findings of Hashmi, et.al. (2008) and Babu, et.al. (2019).