Purpose: This study explores whether targeted microcredit can effectively alleviate households’ multidimensional relative poverty (MdRP) in rural China in the new era following the poverty elimination campaign and discusses it from a gendered perspective.Design/methodology/approach: This study applies a fixed-effects model, propensity score matching (PSM) and two-stage instrumental variable method to two-period panel data collected from 611 households in rural western China in 2018 and 2021 to explore the effects, mechanisms and heterogenous performance of targeted microcredit on households’ MdRP in the new era.Findings: (i) Targeted microcredit can alleviate MdRP among rural households in the new era, mainly by reducing income and opportunity inequality. (ii) Targeted microcredit can promote women’s empowerment, mainly by enhancing their social participation, thereby helping alleviate households’ MdRP. The effect of the targeted microcredit on MdRP is more significant in medium-educated women households and non-left-behind women households. (iii) The MdRP alleviation effect is stronger in villages with a high degree of digitalization.Research limitations/implications: Learn from the experience of targeted microcredit. Accurately identify poor groups and integrate loan design into financial health and women empowerment. Particularly, pay attention to less-educated and left-behind women households and strengthen coordination between targeted microcredit and digital village strategies.Originality/value: This study clarifies the effect of targeted microcredit on women’s empowerment and households’ MdRP alleviation in the new era. It also explores its various effects on households with different female characteristics and regional digitalization levels, providing ideas for optimizing microcredit.

Rural areas exhibit a high prevalence of poverty. As significant progress in poverty reduction has been achieved, research on rural livelihoods has transitioned from a focus on poverty eradication to preventing poverty recurrence and fostering development. Development resilience, which has emerged as a pivotal research area in poverty governance, is a crucial metric for assessing rural households’ long-term capacity to avoid falling back into poverty, considering the multi-dimensional aspects of poverty and welfare dynamics. Utilizing data from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, this study investigates the impact of land inflow on rural household’s development resilience (RHDR). Findings reveal that land inflow significantly enhances RHDR, a conclusion that holds after extensive robustness checks. Mechanism analysis shows that while land inflow initially imposes a financial burden, it eventually acts as an exogenous driver and causes labor force return and economies of scale, boosting RHDR over time. This effect is more pronounced among non-vulnerable households, those with abundant water resources and strong collective awareness. Therefore, it is recommended to refine land inflow systems, reduce barriers to land resource flow, and implement targeted support for vulnerable groups during the initial stages of land inflow to effectively promote rural revitalization through land transfer.

After eliminating absolute poverty, China’s anti-poverty efforts have shifted towards multidimensional relative poverty. This study uses microdata from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) from 2012 to 2021, applies the Kakwani index to construct a multidimensional relative poverty indicator, and uses an endogenous transformation model to analyze the impact of land transfer on multidimensional relative poverty in rural areas. The study found that (1) land transfer can effectively reduce the multidimensional relative poverty of farm households. (2) Land transfer has a better mitigating effect on young farmers, farmers with higher literacy levels, and farmers who have not acute poverty. (3) Land transfer alleviates multidimensional relative poverty by increasing agricultural mechanization, business income, off-farm employment, and wage income. (4) The effects of land transfer out and land transfer in on the dimensions of multidimensional relative poverty are heterogeneous.

Introduction: Understanding how financial scarcity influences intertemporal decision-making is crucial for designing effective poverty-alleviation policies. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying this relationship remain insufficiently explored. This study examines the correlational patterns through which financial scarcity relates to risk and time preferences, with a particular focus on the mediating role of executive functions, specifically planning and initiating, attention, and self-control and self-monitoring. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 468 rural residents in two historically impoverished counties in Yunnan Province, China. Financial scarcity was assessed using the Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity (PIFS), while executive functions were measured with a culturally adapted form of the Amsterdam Executive Function Inventory. Risk and time preferences were assessed through a lottery choice experiment and a money-earlier-or-later allocation task, respectively. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapped mediation tests was employed for data analysis. Results: The results indicate that financial scarcity is significantly associated with lower scores across all three dimensions of executive functioning. Critically, planning and initiating ability emerged as a consistent indirect pathway, yet with a notable divergence across preference domains: higher financial scarcity was associated with lower planning capacity, which in turn was associated with lower risk aversion, whereas lower planning ability was associated with decreased future orientation. Discussion: These findings are consistent with a function-selective refinement of the bandwidth model of scarcity and reveal a counterintuitive pattern in risk-related decisions, suggesting that cognitive depletion may paradoxically reduce risk aversion rather than uniformly impairing prudent choice. The study highlights the importance of designing targeted cognitive-scaffolding interventions to support sound decision-making under conditions of financial constraint.

Assessments of poverty among agricultural households in Sub-Saharan Africa often rely on either monetary or multidimensional indicators considered separately, overlooking key structural constraints. This study investigates the determinants of both monetary and multidimensional poverty among agricultural households in Togo. Using nationally representative EHCVM 2021/22 data from 2893 households, monetary poverty is measured using the Foster–Greer–Thorbecke Index, while multidimensional poverty is assessed with the Alkire–Foster method. A survey-weighted logit model is employed to identify the drivers associated with each poverty dimension. Results show that multidimensional poverty (59.40%) is more widespread than monetary poverty (51.50%). Education substantially reduces poverty risk, whereas larger household size, limited market access, and residence in the Savannah region increase it. Economic and natural shocks are negatively associated with monetary and absolute poverty, while cooperative membership raises the likelihood of being poor. Investment in livestock (TLU) reduces monetary poverty but increases multidimensional deprivation. These findings highlight that poverty among agricultural households in Togo is shaped by interconnected socioeconomic and institutional constraints rather than income deprivation alone. Therefore, integrated strategies aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those promoting education, rural credit access, market integration, and resilience-building, are essential for achieving effective and context-specific poverty reduction.