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How Well Can Method Substitute for Data? Five Experiments in Poverty Analysis

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  • Ravallion, Martin

Abstract

No one doubts the good data are essential to sound policymaking. Alas, data are invariably faulty. Methodological solutions to data inadequacies have often been proposed and implemented, but they have been tested only rarely. Yet the methods that are used may well determine the direction of policy. For example, the particular survey method used--and the way nonsurvey data are interpreted--may be critical in assessing whether a country's strategy for reducing poverty is working. This article shows how counterfactual experiments can help test the reliability of various methods of dealing with common data problems. Well-designed methods--and they need not be very complicated--can help get around the problem, although it appears that substituting method for data is a long way from being perfect. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.

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  • Ravallion, Martin, 1996. "How Well Can Method Substitute for Data? Five Experiments in Poverty Analysis," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 199-221, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:11:y:1996:i:2:p:199-221
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    Cited by:

    1. Bidani, Benu & Ravallion, Martin, 1997. "Decomposing social indicators using distributional data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 125-139, March.
    2. Gaurav Datt & Martin Ravallion, 2002. "Is India's Economic Growth Leaving the Poor Behind?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 89-108, Summer.
    3. Quang Tran, Tuyen & Hong Nguyen, Son & Van Vu, Huong & Quoc Nguyen, Viet, 2014. "Determinants of poverty among ethnic minorities in the Northwest region, Vietnam," MPRA Paper 59144, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Oct 2014.
    4. Jalan, Jyotsna & Ravallion, Martin, 1998. "Transient Poverty in Postreform Rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 338-357, June.
    5. Carlo Azzarri & Gero Carletto & Benjamin Davis & Alberto Zezza, 2006. "Monitoring Poverty Without Consumption Data : An Application Using the Albania Panel Survey," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 59-82, February.
    6. Fambon, Samuel & McKay, Andy & Timnou, Joseph-Pierre & Kouakep, Olive Stephanie & Dzossa, Anaclet, 2014. "Growth, poverty, and inequality: The case study of Cameroon," WIDER Working Paper Series 154, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Hai-Anh H. Dang & Peter F. Lanjouw & Umar Serajuddin, 2017. "Updating poverty estimates in the absence of regular and comparable consumption data: methods and illustration with reference to a middle-income country," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 939-962.
    8. Philip Duku Osei, 2002. "A critical assessment of Jamaica's national poverty eradication programme," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(6), pages 773-788.
    9. Nguyen, Thanh Viet & Tran, Tuyen Quang, 2018. "Forestland and rural household livelihoods in the North Central Provinces, Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 10-19.
    10. Haughton, Jonathan & Khandker, Shahidur R., 2014. "The Surprising Effects of the Great Recession: Losers and Winners in Thailand in 2008–09," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 77-92.
    11. Tauisi Taupo & Harold Cuffe & Ilan Noy, 2018. "Household vulnerability on the frontline of climate change: the Pacific atoll nation of Tuvalu," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(4), pages 705-739, October.
    12. Luc Christiaensen & Peter Lanjouw & Jill Luoto & David Stifel, 2012. "Small area estimation-based prediction methods to track poverty: validation and applications," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(2), pages 267-297, June.
    13. Ahmed, Faizuddin & Dorji, Cheku & Takamatsu, Shinya & Yoshida, Nobuo, 2014. "Hybrid survey to improve the reliability of poverty statistics in a cost-effective manner," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6909, The World Bank.
    14. Rachel Sabates-Wheeler & Ricardo Sabates & Adriana Castaldo, 2008. "Tackling Poverty-migration Linkages: Evidence from Ghana and Egypt," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 307-328, June.
    15. Haughton, Jonathan & Khandker, Shahidur R., 2012. "The surprising effects of the great recession : losers and winners in Thailand in 2008-2009," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6255, The World Bank.
    16. Howard White, 2005. "Combining the Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Poverty Measurement and Analysis," Development and Comp Systems 0505003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. World Bank, 2011. "Georgia - Poverty dynamics, 2003-2010," World Bank Publications - Reports 2806, The World Bank Group.
    18. Sibylle Gerstl & Justin Sauter & Joseph Kasanda & Alfred Kinzelbach, 2013. "Who Can Afford Health Care? Evaluating the Socio-Economic Conditions and the Ability to Contribute to Health Care in a Post-Conflict Area in DR Congo," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-1, October.
    19. Sanjeev Gupta & Marijn Verhoeven & Erwin R. Tiongson, 2003. "Public spending on health care and the poor," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(8), pages 685-696, August.
    20. Newhouse, D. & Shivakumaran, S. & Takamatsu, S. & Yoshida, N., 2014. "How survey-to-survey imputation can fail," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6961, The World Bank.
    21. Tilman Bruck, "undated". "Determinants of Rural Poverty in Post-War Mozambique: Evidence from a Household Survey and Implications for Government and Donor Policy," QEH Working Papers qehwps67, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.

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