Chapter 3: How to Interpret ADePT Results
from owning 0 hectare of land to > 1 hectare of land, and change from male-headed household to female-headed household. Columns report the percentage changes in the probability of being in poverty for rural and urban areas and across 2003 and 2006. Recall from our discussion about table 3.28 that the interpretation of dummy or binary variables is different from that of continuous variables. A dummy variable, unlike a continuous variable, may take only a value of either 0 or 1. Table 3.28 described how the probability of being in poverty changes as values of certain variables change. The probability of being in poverty in 2003 increased by 2.0 percent [1,A] if an individual moved from an urban household with no children in the 0–6 years age group to an urban household with one child in the same age group, all other factors being identical. The probability of being in poverty in 2003 is increased by 18.0 percent [1,B] if an individual moved from a rural household with no children in the 0–6 years age group to a rural household with one child in the same age group, all else being identical. In the urban area, the increase in the probability of being in poverty in 2006 for the same reason is 31.5 percent [1,C]. Similarly, in 2003 if an individual moved from a male-headed urban household to a female-headed urban household, all else being identical, then the probability of being in poverty increased by 13.0 percent [7,A]. If an individual moved from a male-headed rural household to a femaleheaded rural household, all else being identical, then the probability of being in poverty increased by only 0.2 percent [7,B]. The largest increase in the probability of being in poverty in 2003 in the urban area occurred when an individual moved from a household where the head is employed in the agricultural sector to a household where the head is unemployed [24,A], all else being identical. Lessons for Policy Makers The table provides a detailed analysis of how the probability of being in poverty changes when some of the crucial determinants of poverty are adjusted. Note that if the household head’s education in the urban area in 2006 increased from elementary education or less to secondary education, all else remaining equal, then the probability of a member in that household being in poverty fell by 22.4 percent [9,C]. Similarly, in rural Georgia for both years, if the household head transferred from the agricultural sector to any
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