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Poverty comparisons with non-compatible data: theory and illustrations

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  • Lanjouw, Jean Olson
  • Lanjouw, Peter

Abstract

Comparisons of poverty rates are only rarely based on identical underlying definitions of welfare. The authors examine the sensitivity of poverty rates calculated from alternative definitions of consumption. They consider what theory can say about the direction of bias in comparisons and show that under certain conditions robust comparisons are possible. Data from Ecuador, El Salvador, and Pakistan show that the magnitude of biases can be substantial. Their robustness result is used as a baseline to explore the tradeoffs involved in aggregating noisy expenditure components. Although nonfood expenditures are often thought to be especially poorly measured, the authors'data indicate that the more comprehensive is the measure of consumption spending, the better it is as a measure of welfare.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 1709.

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Date of creation: 31 Jan 1997
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:1709

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Related research

Keywords: Public Health Promotion; Environmental Economics&Policies; Poverty Reduction Strategies; Health Economics&Finance; Services&Transfers to Poor; Poverty Reduction Strategies; Achieving Shared Growth; Poverty Assessment; Environmental Economics&Policies; Poverty Lines;

References

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  1. Ravallion, Martin, 1988. "Expected Poverty under Risk-Induced Welfare Variability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(393), pages 1171-82, December.
  2. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-64, July.
  3. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-66, May.
  4. Atkinson,Anthony Barnes & Micklewright,John, 1992. "Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521433297.
  5. Ravallion, Martin, 1994. "Poverty rankings using noisy data on living standards," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 481-485, August.
  6. Atkinson, Anthony B, 1991. "Comparing Poverty Rates Internationally: Lessons from Recent Studies in Developed Countries," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 5(1), pages 3-21, January.
  7. Ravallion, Martin & Bidani, Benu, 1993. "How robust is a poverty profile?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1223, The World Bank.
  8. Deininger, K & Squire, L, 1996. "Measuring Income Inequality : A New Data-Base," Papers 537, Harvard - Institute for International Development.
  9. John Dreze & Peter Lanjouw & Nicholas Stern, 1992. "Economic Mobility and Agricultural Labour in Rural India: A Case Study," Indian Economic Review, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, vol. 27, pages 25-54.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Schady, Norbert & Rosero, Jose, 2007. "Are cash transfers made to women spent like other sources of income?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4282, The World Bank.
  2. Stefan Dercon & Pramila Krishnan, 1998. "Changes in poverty in rural Ethiopia 1989-1995: measurement, robustness tests and decomposition," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/1998-07, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  3. Hentschel, Jesko & Lanjouw, Jean Olson & Lanjouw, Peter & Poggi, Javier, 1998. "Combining census and survey data to study spatial dimensions of poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1928, The World Bank.
  4. Lanjouw, Peter, 1998. "Ecuador's rural nonfarm sector as a route out of poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1904, The World Bank.
  5. Francisco de Hollanda Guimarães Ferreira & Peter Lanjouw & Marcelo Neri, 2000. "A new poverty profile for Brazil using PPV, PNAD and census data," Textos para discussão 418, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
  6. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Lanjouw, Peter & Neri, Marcelo Cortes, 2002. "A Robust Poverty Profile for Brazil Using Multiple Data Sources," Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 444, Graduate School of Economics, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil).
  7. Jean-Pierre Lachaud, 1998. "La pauvreté en Mauritanie : une approche multidimensionnelle," Documents de travail 31, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
  8. Lanjouw, Peter & Milanovic, Branko & Paternostro, Stefano, 1998. "Poverty and the economic transition : how do changes in economies of scale affect poverty rates for different households?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2009, The World Bank.

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