Urban Poverty and Welfare Inequality the case of Miachew, Ethiopia

The study explores extent of poverty,vulnerability to poverty and welfare inequality residents of Maichew, southern Tigray, Ethiopia.The lesson thoroughly looks welfare status at household level via different micro analytical techniques like OLS, Tobit,3FGLS and Gini coefficient.Using CBN approach total poverty line of the area is ETB 251 per month per adult.Poverty profile of the town reveals 31.70% of households are below poverty line.OLS result illustrates female headed,educational level of head and spouse have positive impact on welfare while family size,divorced and widowed headed households have negative effect to welfare.Tobit model describes factors affecting poverty severity of the poor.Accordingly,pensioner headship and family size aggravate poverty severity.Being petty trade head, head education,ownership ofdurable property reduce the probability of falling to poverty severity. Using 3FGLS, mean probability of vulnerable to poverty is 0.4.Gini coefficientaccounts 0.49 of total welfare inequality.Factor decomposition of welafre inequality typifies property index and social transition of head take greater share of 14.6% and 12.4% respectively.