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Choosing among rival poverty rates : some tests for Latin America

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  • William C. Gruben
  • Darryl McLeod

Abstract

Poverty rates are now widely available, but are they reliable? Wide variations in estimated poverty rates for the same poverty line, year and country reflect an underlying reality: there is no widely accepted procedure for estimating national poverty rates. This paper proposes a simple, ex post procedure for selecting poverty rates that have certain desirable properties. Absolute poverty measures, estimated uniformly across countries, should be correlated with nonmonetary indicators that reflect the consequences of physical deprivation (e.g., malnutrition, birth rates, school attendance). A series of non-nested hypotheses tests are used to choose among competing poverty and income measures. This method is applied to screen the 66 alternate poverty measures computed by Szkeley, Lustig et al. (2000) for 17 Latin countries. These tests identify 10-15 poverty measures that meet the standards set forth for useful poverty measures. This final group of poverty measures is then ranked using various performance criteria.

Suggested Citation

  • William C. Gruben & Darryl McLeod, 2003. "Choosing among rival poverty rates : some tests for Latin America," Center for Latin America Working Papers 0103, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:feddcl:0103
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alesina, Alberto & Di Tella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert, 2004. "Inequality and happiness: are Europeans and Americans different?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2009-2042, August.
    2. Altimer, Oscar, 1987. "Income Distribution Statistics in Latin America and Their Reliability," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 33(2), pages 111-155, June.
    3. Neil R. Ericsson, 1983. "Asymptotic Properties of Instrumental Variables Statistics for Testing Non-Nested Hypotheses," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(2), pages 287-304.
    4. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    5. Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 2000. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970-1995," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 3, pages 93-134, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. McLeod, Darryl, 2006. "How fast did developing country poverty fall during the 1990s? Capabilities-based tests of rival estimates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 297-303, March.

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