Poverty Traps in the Municipalities of Ecuador: Empirical Evidence

Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify from a spatial and temporal perspective the territories that are located in a “poverty trap” scenario. This is a scenario that does not allow overcoming the conditions and determinants that gave rise to this precarious situation, creating a vicious circle where the conditions of poverty endure through time. The methodology applied is an exploratory analysis of spatial dependence through Moran’s scatterplot and local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps to visualize the spatial clusters of poverty. The database used is that of the population and housing censuses of 1990, 2001, and 2010 at the cantonal level. The results determine that 73 cantons were in a poverty trap over the period 1990–2001, while from 2001–2010, there were 75 cantons in this situation, which were located mainly in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, and Loja.

Determination of the urban wage premium in Ecuador

“…Thus, poverty is one of the specific characteristics of developing countries that can negatively influence the UWP. In fact, in Ecuador, 75 cantons out of a total of 221 are in a poverty trap according to Correa-Quezada et al (2018). Regarding the rest of cities that are presented in descending order by population, the UWP is lower in cities with less population.…”

Water Balance and Soil Moisture Deficit of Different Vegetation Units under Semiarid Conditions in the Andes of Southern Ecuador

“…These generated water surpluses must be saved for later use [50], for which reservoirs might be constructed or traditionally used storage basins, called "albarradas" in Ecuador [101], rehabilitated. Nonetheless, the agricultural frontier still invades the remaining areas of natural vegetation, because agriculture is the principal economic activity for the local population [13,28,42], which, together with uncontrolled water extractions and high deforestation rates, endanger the availability of hydrological resources, as it is observed in many semiarid regions of the world [8,102].…”

“…The economy of the local population is principally based on agriculture, in which low-yield products for subsistence dominate [24]. However, in some parts, irrigation systems and intensive agricultural production techniques are implemented to produce principally corn and sugarcane, but also coffee and fruits for the local and regional market [42].…”

La COVID-19 y su impacto en la pobreza de Ecuador: método de escenarios

“…Si bien el presente estudio se enfocó en la cuestión de ingresos y pobreza dentro de un contexto nacional, resulta necesario a futuro estudiar las consecuencias de la pandemia a nivel regional. Esto permitiría tener una perspectiva más completa desde el punto de vista espacial dada la heterogeneidad de las regiones, además de considerar otras consecuencias bajo el enfoque de necesidades básicas insatisfechas, ya que los ingresos forman parte de esta medición, y las posibles trampas de pobreza (Correa-Quezada et al, 2018) que podrían exacerbarse dado el contexto de la pandemia.…”