Livelihood Choices and Multi-Dimensional Poverty in Impoverished Mountainous Areas

Abstract

Livelihood choices are one of the main topics in the study of rural livelihood. This chapter offers an empirical analysis of the livelihood choices of rural households in poverty-stricken mountainous areas in western China. As relative poverty has become an increasingly prominent problem among rural households in China, it is necessary for us to assess and measure poverty from multiple perspectives. As such, there are three sections in this chapter. The first section examines the background of the two rural household surveys from which this book draws its empirical study, as well as the surveys proper. In the second section, we look at the livelihood choices made by rural households in Ankang, and in the third section we look at ways of measuring multi-dimensional poverty in rural households.