Alejandro Javier Perez Portocarrero

Alejandro Javier Perez Portocarrero

MSc Development Economics at the University of Nottingham. Research assistant at the University of Nottingham and Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.

Differences in the beginning of the period of social isolation compared to Covid19: Peru-Italy

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The charts below show the different political responses to COVID19 in Peru and Italy (today, the most affected country by the pandemic).

Graphic 1. Days since the first confirmed case in Peru Editing a markdown file for a talk

Although the health systems between these countries are obviously very different, the objective with the graphs presented is to provide a first idea about the relevance of the implementation of social immobility policies as measures to reduce positive cases of COVID19.

Graphic 2. Days since the first confirmed case in Italy Editing a markdown file for a talk

Based on the tweet of Ignacio Urbina H on Twitter (11 March). https://www.dropbox.com/s/lddn7g4v3ewfynv/do_stata_covid19.do?dl=0

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Since the beginning of the national emergency due to the advance of Covid19, in Peru, as in other countries, it has been urgent to serve populations that, given their characteristics, are more vulnerable than others: the poor. Conventionally, one way to identify these people is through monetary measurements, which evaluate households through their spending: if given their income they cannot consume a minimum basket1, they are poor, otherwise they are not. Although this approach allows the construction of indicators that have a simple measurement and understanding, there are currently several studies that indicate that “purchasing behavior is only part of the defining characteristic of poverty”2. In this framework, I propose to offer some reasons to start measuring poverty from a multidimensional plane3.

  1. According to INEI (2019), the monetary approach considers people in households whose per capita spending is insufficient to acquire a basic basket of food and non-food (housing, clothing, education, health, transportation, etc.) to be poor. Likewise, those from households whose per capita expenses are below even the cost of the basic food basket are extremely poor. ↩

  2. See for example the paper by Caterina Ruggeri et al. (2003) “Does it matter that we do not agree on the definition of poverty? A comparison of four approaches” showing an example for Peru and India. ↩

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Some data on those most affected by COVID19 in Peru: The informal workers (Part II)

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As discussed in the previous article, given the mandatory social immobility ordered by the Peruvian government to reduce the advance of COVID19, most of the economic activities have been interrupted, threatening the payment chain and maintaining the living conditions of the population. The government has put in place measures to support the most vulnerable populations through subsidies. At first, these measures were directed at the country’s poor. More recently, the creation of the Bono Independiente has been announced, an economic subsidy aimed at workers with incomes of less than 1,200 soles (353 USD) and who are not on the payroll of the public or private sector (780,000 vulnerable households)1. In other words, this new bonus will focus mainly on workers with informal jobs; And, for a better understanding of who they are and what their main characteristics are, the following lines come.

  1. In accordance with the Emergency Decree No. 033-2020 that the Independent Bond provides, other characteristics that potential beneficiaries must have: i) they must not be poor according to the General Register of Homes (PGH); ii) they must be in the geographical areas with the greatest health vulnerability; iii) they must not be recipients of other types of subsidies; and, iv) they should not have contracts with the public sector. ↩