IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v157y2017icp125-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New global estimates of child poverty and their sensitivity to alternative equivalence scales

Author

Listed:
  • Newhouse, David
  • Suárez Becerra, Pablo
  • Evans, Martin

Abstract

This paper uses micro-data from household surveys from 89 countries to estimate the rate of extreme poverty among children in the developing world. 19.5% of children are estimated to live on less than $1.90 per day, as opposed to 9.2% of adults. Poverty rates for children remain above 17%, and are greater than adult poverty rates, for all reasonable two-parameter equivalence scales.

Suggested Citation

  • Newhouse, David & Suárez Becerra, Pablo & Evans, Martin, 2017. "New global estimates of child poverty and their sensitivity to alternative equivalence scales," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 125-128.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:157:y:2017:i:c:p:125-128
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2017.06.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176517302355
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2017.06.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olinto, Pedro & Beegle, Kathleen & Sobrado, Carlos & Uematsu, Hiroki, 2013. "The State of the Poor: Where Are The Poor, Where Is Extreme Poverty Harder to End, and What Is the Current Profile of the World’s Poor?," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 125, pages 1-8, October.
    2. Timothy Smeeding & Gunther Schmaus & Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using the LIS Database," LIS Working papers 17, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    4. Batana, Yélé & Bussolo, Maurizio & Cockburn, John, 2013. "Global extreme poverty rates for children, adults and the elderly," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 405-407.
    5. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier & Kwenda, Prudence, 2014. "Intrahousehold distribution and poverty: Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 262-276.
    6. Ravallion, Martin, 2015. "On testing the scale sensitivity of poverty measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 88-90.
    7. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and Household Size," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(433), pages 1415-1434, November.
    8. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen & Prem Sangraula, 2009. "Dollar a Day Revisited," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 23(2), pages 163-184, June.
    9. Geoffrey R. Dunbar & Arthur Lewbel & Krishna Pendakur, 2013. "Children's Resources in Collective Households: Identification, Estimation, and an Application to Child Poverty in Malawi," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 438-471, February.
    10. Angus Deaton & Salman Zaidi, 2002. "Guidelines for Constructing Consumption Aggregates for Welfare Analysis," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 14101, April.
    11. Jean‐Yves Duclos & Magda Mercader‐Prats, 1999. "Household Needs And Poverty: With Application To Spain And The U.K," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(1), pages 77-98, March.
    12. Castaneda Aguilar,Raul Andres & Doan,Dung Thi Thuy & Newhouse,David Locke & Nguyen,Minh Cong & Uematsu,Hiroki & Azevedo,Joao Pedro Wagner De, 2016. "Who are the poor in the developing world ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7844, The World Bank.
    13. Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater & Guenther Schmaus & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well‐Being, Inequality, And Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using The Luxembourg Income Study (Lis) Database," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 34(2), pages 115-142, June.
    14. Coulter, Fiona A E & Cowell, Frank A & Jenkins, Stephen P, 1992. "Equivalence Scale Relativities and the Extent of Inequality and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(414), pages 1067-1082, September.
    15. repec:bla:revinw:v:34:y:1988:i:2:p:115-42 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. de Ree, Joppe & Alessie, Rob & Pradhan, Menno, 2013. "The price and utility dependence of equivalence scales: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 272-281.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abanokova, Kseniya & Dang, Hai-Anh H & Lokshin, Michael, 2020. "The Important Role of Equivalence Scales: Household Size, Composition, and Poverty Dynamics in Russia," IZA Discussion Papers 13043, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Kseniya Abanokova & Hai-Anh H. Dang & Michael M. Lokshin, 2020. "The Important Role of Equivalence Scales: Household Size, Composition, and Poverty Dynamics in the Russian Federation," Working Papers 539, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Jolliffe, Dean & Baah, Samuel Kofi Tetteh, 2024. "Identifying the poor – Accounting for household economies of scale in global poverty estimates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Munoz Boudet,Ana Maria & Bhatt,Antra & Azcona,Ginette & Yoo,Jayne Jungsun & Beegle,Kathleen G., 2021. "A Global View of Poverty, Gender, and Household Composition," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9553, The World Bank.
    5. Martin Evans, 2018. "Simulating policy options for universal child allowances in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-145, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Martin Evans, 2018. "Simulating policy options for universal child allowances in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series 145, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Kseniya Abanokova & Hai‐Anh H. Dang & Michael Lokshin, 2022. "Do Adjustments for Equivalence Scales Affect Poverty Dynamics? Evidence from the Russian Federation during 1994–2017," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S1), pages 167-192, April.
    8. Yixia Cai & Timothy Smeeding, 2019. "Deep and Extreme Child Poverty in Rich and Poor Nations: Lessons from Atkinson for the Fight Against Child Poverty," LIS Working papers 780, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Christos Koulovatianos & Carsten Schröder, 2023. "Income-dependent equivalence scales and choice theory: implications for poverty measurement," Chapters, in: Jacques Silber (ed.), Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation, chapter 4, pages 39-49, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Bose-Duker,Theophiline & Gaddis,Isis & Kilic,Talip & Lechene,Valérie & Pendakur,Krishna, 2021. "Diamonds in the Rough? : Repurposing Multi-Topic Surveys to Estimate Individual-Level Consumption Poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9661, The World Bank.
    11. Oliver Fiala & Enrique Delamónica & Gerardo Escaroz & Ismael Cid Martinez & José Espinoza-Delgado & Aristide Kielem, 2021. "Children in Monetary Poor Households: Baseline and COVID-19 Impact for 2020 and 2021," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 161-176, July.
    12. Yixia Cai & Timothy Smeeding, 2020. "Deep and Extreme Child Poverty in Rich and Poor Nations: Lessons from Atkinson for the Fight Against Child Poverty," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 109-128, March.

    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. Ravallion, Martin, 2015. "On testing the scale sensitivity of poverty measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 88-90.
    2. Echeverría, Lucía, 2022. "Sensibilidad del análisis de la pobreza a las escalas de equivalencias. Una aplicación para Argentina," Nülan. Deposited Documents 3789, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    3. Coral del Río & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2001. "TIPs for poverty analysis. The case of Spain, 1980-81 to 1990-91," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 25(1), pages 63-91, January.
    4. Núñez Velázquez, José Javier, 2009. "Estado actual y nuevas aproximaciones a la medición de la pobreza/Current Status and New Approaches to the Measurement of Poverty," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 27, pages 325-346, Agosto.
    5. Mysikova, Martina & Zelinsky, Tomas, 2019. "On the Measurement of the Income Poverty Rate: the Equivalence Scale across Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 99(4), pages 383-397.
    6. Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2004. "Migration, poverty, and housing in Honduras," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 31(1 Year 20), pages 5-20, June.
    7. Gordon Anderson, 2003. "Poverty in America 1970-1990: who did gain ground? An application of stochastic dominance criteria employing simultaneous inequality tests in a partial panel," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(6), pages 621-640.
    8. Regier, Gregory & Zereyesus, Yacob & Dalton, Timothy & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2015. "Do Adult Equivalence Scales Matter in Poverty Estimates? A Ghana Case Study," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212487, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Gianni Betti & Mehmet Ali Karadag & Ozlem Sarica & Baris Ucar, 2017. "How to Reduce the Impact of Equivalence Scales on Poverty Measurement: Evidence from Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1023-1035, July.
    10. Miguel Szekely & Nora Lustig & Martin Cumpa & Jose Antonio Mejia, 2004. "Do we know how much poverty there is?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 523-558.
    11. Brown, Caitlin & Calvi, Rossella & Penglase, Jacob, 2021. "Sharing the pie: An analysis of undernutrition and individual consumption in Bangladesh," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    12. Ahmad Fahme Mohd Ali & W.A. Amir Zal & Nurhanan Ab. Hamid & Tengku Fauzan Tengku Anuar & Hafizi Mat Salleh & Siti Asma Md. Rasdi, 2022. "The Moderating Effect of zakāh Distribution on the Economic Well-being of the Poor: An Analysis in Kelantan, Malaysia التأثير المعتدل لتوزيع الزكاة على الرفاهية الاقتصادية للفقراء: تحليل من ولاية كلان," Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute., vol. 35(1), pages 75-97, January.
    13. Sunil Kumar & Renuka Mahadevan, 2008. "Construction of An Adult Equivalence Index to Measure Intra-household Inequality and Poverty: Case Study," Discussion Papers Series 363, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    14. Meenakshi, J. V. & Ray, Ranjan, 2002. "Impact of household size and family composition on poverty in rural India," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 539-559, October.
    15. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Lanjouw, Peter & Neri, Marcelo Côrtes, 2003. "A Robust Poverty Profile for Brazil Using Multiple Data Sources," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 57(1), January.
    16. Tripathi, Sabyasachi, 2018. "Does Higher Economic Development Reduce Household Size? Evidence from India," MPRA Paper 86684, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Miguel Székely & Nora Lustig & Martin Cumpa & José Antonio Mejía-Guerra, 2000. "¿Sabemos qué tanta pobreza hay?," Research Department Publications 4240, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    18. Brian Nolan & Ive Marx, 1999. "Low Pay and Household Poverty," LIS Working papers 216, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    19. 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).
    20. Udo Ebert & Patrick Moyes, 2017. "Inequality and isoelastic equivalence scales: restrictions and implications," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(2), pages 295-326, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty; Children; Scales;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    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:eee:ecolet:v:157:y:2017:i:c:p:125-128. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.