IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/esprep/218971.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The devil in the details: The core disadvantage of the International Poverty Line

Author

Listed:
  • Moatsos, Michail

Abstract

Our appreciation of global poverty almost exclusively relies on the official statistics published by the World Bank. Yet, these official global poverty estimates, based on the standard dollar-a-day approach, fall short in their prime objective of observing a constant standard of living across countries and over time. This paper discusses in brief the core methodological problem of the method, that is the idea that a single poverty line can be used for all country and all years consistently.

Suggested Citation

  • Moatsos, Michail, 2020. "The devil in the details: The core disadvantage of the International Poverty Line," EconStor Preprints 218971, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:esprep:218971
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/218971/1/DevilInTheDetails.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Shaohua Chen & Andrew Dabalen & Yuri Dikhanov & Nada Hamadeh & Dean Jolliffe & Ambar Narayan & Espen Beer Prydz & Ana Revenga & Prem Sangraula & Umar Serajuddin & Nobuo Yosh, 2016. "A global count of the extreme poor in 2012: data issues, methodology and initial results," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 141-172, June.
    2. Anand, Sudhir & Segal, Paul & Stiglitz, Joseph E. (ed.), 2010. "Debates on the Measurement of Global Poverty," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199558049.
    3. Shaohua Chien & Martin Ravallion, 2001. "How did the world's poorest fare in the 1990s?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 47(3), pages 283-300, September.
    4. Shaohua Chen & Martin Ravallion, 2010. "The Developing World is Poorer than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1577-1625.
    5. Robert C. Allen, 2017. "Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3690-3721, December.
    6. Moatsos Michail, 2016. "Global Absolute Poverty: Behind the Veil of Dollars," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-28, December.
    7. Gordon Anderson & Maria Pittau & Roberto Zelli, 2014. "Poverty status probability: a new approach to measuring poverty and the progress of the poor," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(4), pages 469-488, December.
    8. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & van de Walle, Dominique & Chan, Elaine, 1991. "Quantifying the magnitude and severity of absolute poverty in the developing world in the mid-1980s," Policy Research Working Paper Series 587, The World Bank.
    9. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 1997. "What Can New Survey Data Tell Us about Recent Changes in Distribution and Poverty?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 357-382, May.
    10. repec:pri:rpdevs:deaton_price_indexes_inequality_and_the_measurement_of_world_poverty_aer. is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Moatsos Michail, 2018. "The Unbearable Errorlessness of Global Poverty Estimates," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    12. Angus Deaton, 2010. "Price Indexes, Inequality, and the Measurement of World Poverty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 5-34, March.
    13. repec:pri:rpdevs:presidential%20address%2017january%202010%20all.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Martin Ravallion & Gaurav Datt & Dominique van de Walle, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty In The Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 345-361, December.
    15. Robert Allen, 2013. "Poverty Lines in History, Theory, and Current International Practice," Economics Series Working Papers 685, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    16. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & van de Walle, Dominique, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty in the Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 345-361, December.
    17. Robert C. Allen, 2017. "Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire REVISED," Working Papers 20170005, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2017.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moatsos Michail, 2016. "Global Absolute Poverty: Behind the Veil of Dollars," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(2), pages 1-28, December.
    2. Robert C. Allen, 2017. "Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3690-3721, December.
    3. Moatsos, Michail, 2020. "Global Absolute Poverty: The Evolution of its Measurement," EconStor Preprints 216642, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Moatsos, Michail, 2020. "Why PPP exchange rates should be avoided in global poverty estimates," EconStor Preprints 218972, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Michail Moatsos, 2021. "Long run trails of poverty, 1925–2010," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2797-2825, November.
    6. Robert C. Allen, 2017. "Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire REVISED," Working Papers 20170005, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2017.
    7. Dhongde, Shatakshee & Minoiu, Camelia, 2013. "Global Poverty Estimates: A Sensitivity Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    9. Moatsos, Michail & Lazopoulos, Achillefs, 2021. "Global poverty: A first estimation of its uncertainty," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    10. Peter Saunders, 2018. "Monitoring and addressing global poverty: A new approach and implications for Australia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 9-23, March.
    11. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Shaohua Chen & Andrew Dabalen & Yuri Dikhanov & Nada Hamadeh & Dean Jolliffe & Ambar Narayan & Espen Beer Prydz & Ana Revenga & Prem Sangraula & Umar Serajuddin & Nobuo Yosh, 2016. "A global count of the extreme poor in 2012: data issues, methodology and initial results," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 141-172, June.
    12. Martin Ravallion, 2016. "Toward better global poverty measures," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 227-248, June.
    13. Martin Ravallion, 2020. "On the Origins of the Idea of Ending Poverty," NBER Working Papers 27808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2019. "Global poverty measurement when relative income matters," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Crombrugghe, D.P.I. de & Szirmai, A. & Bluhm, R., 2014. "Poor trends: The pace of poverty reduction after the Millennium Development Agenda," MERIT Working Papers 2014-006, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    16. Moatsos, Michail, 2022. "Long-Run Trends and Confidence Intervals in the Cost of Basic Needs and Global Poverty: A ballpark approach," MPRA Paper 113035, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Mahembe Edmore & Odhiambo Nicholas M., 2018. "The Dynamics of Extreme Poverty in Developing Countries," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 28(2), pages 18-35, June.
    18. Leonardo Lucchetti & Andrés Castañeda & Santiago Garriga & Leonardo Gasparini & Daniel Valderrama, 2018. "How Sensitive Is Regional Poverty Measurement in Latin America to the Value of the Poverty Line?," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2018), pages 33-58, November.
    19. Alkire, Sabina & Santos, Maria Emma, 2014. "Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 251-274.
    20. Dean Jolliffe & Espen Beer Prydz, 2016. "Estimating international poverty lines from comparable national thresholds," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 185-198, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global Poverty; Absolute Poverty; Poverty Measurement; Dollar-A-Day; International Poverty Line; WBPL;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:esprep:218971. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.