Samaneh Ebrahimpour - M.A of Economics, University of Mazandaran
Zahra Mila Elmi - Associate Professor,Department of Economics, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

This paper identifies the effective factors and their impact on poverty of Iranian urban households by using micro data of household survey in 2919 which is carried out by the Statistical Center of Iran covered 18791 households. The study has two major steps. At first, poverty line is calculated by using 595 of average per capita expenditure approach and then poor and non-poor households are separated. In the second, the data are clustered and after that, panel data with Logit model is estimated with maximum likelihood approach. This study uses this method of estimation for determining the socio- economic factors that effect on the poor in Iran for the first time.The study shows that being in poverty is strongly associated with household size and the head’s education, gender of the head and proportion of income earners in household.

Poverty, Panel Data with Limited Dependent Variable Models, Household Survey Data, Urban Areas of Iran