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A satisfactory explanation of why some people are poor is essential to tackle the roots of poverty. Therefore, the causes of poverty and their behavior over time are more important to understand the depth of the problem in a particular sector in a country. This study examines the micro-level factors associated with household poverty and their behavior over the years in the rural sector in Sri Lanka using disaggregated Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) data in 1990/91 to 2009/10 using Probit regression analyses. The major factors affected for the poverty reduction in the rural sector within last two decades are employment of the head of the household in the public sector, education of the head of the household, the head engaging in the non-agriculture sector, higher female adult ratio, and the receipt of remittances. They are statistically significant variables to the model. Relatively, foreign remittance has played a very important role in poverty reduction in the rural sector. Households with the higher dependency ratio, the large household size, and head engaged in private sector job and the female headed households are more likely to be poor in the rural sector in Sri Lanka. However, almost all the coefficients (both positive and negative factors) show declining trends of their impact on poverty over time while impacts of the head engage in non-agriculture activities and the higher female adult ratio have increased.
Ranathunga et al. (Fri,) studied this question.