IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v35y2000i1p51-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International Comparisons of Poverty Intensity: Index Decomposition and Bootstrap Inference

Author

Listed:
  • Lars Osberg
  • Kuan Xu

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternative formulation for the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon (SST) index of poverty intensity that is appropriate for survey data with sampling weights. It also decomposes the SST index into the poverty rate, the average poverty gap ratio among the poor, and the overall Gini index of poverty gap ratios. To account for sampling variation in estimates of poverty intensity, this paper uses the bootstrap method to compute confidence intervals and presents international comparisons using Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data from the 1970s to the 1990s. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses indicate that the percentage change in poverty intensity can be approximated by the sum of percentage changes in the poverty rate and average poverty gap ratio, since changes in the overall Gini index of poverty gap ratios are negligible. In the early 1970s poverty intensity in Canada and the United States was almost indistinguishable, but in the 1970s Canadian poverty intensity decreased. Large increases in poverty intensity occurred in the 1980s in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Suggested Citation

  • Lars Osberg & Kuan Xu, 2000. "International Comparisons of Poverty Intensity: Index Decomposition and Bootstrap Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(1), pages 51-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:35:y:2000:i:1:p:51-81
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/146356
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    2. Richard V. Burkhauser & Timothy M. Smeeding & Joachim Merz, 1996. "Relative Inequality And Poverty In Germany And The United States Using Alternative Equivalence Scales," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(4), pages 381-400, December.
    3. Card, David & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1993. "Small Differences That Matter," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226092836, Febrero.
    4. Richard Rose & Ian Mcallister, 1996. "Is Money The Measure Of Welfare In Russia?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(1), pages 75-90, March.
    5. Michael Wolfson, 1986. "Stasis Amid Change Income Inequality In Canada 1965‐1983," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 32(4), pages 337-369, December.
    6. Lee Rainwater & Timothy Smeeding, 1995. "Doing Poorly: The Real Income of American Children in a Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 127, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Rongve, I., 1995. "Statistical Inference for Poverty Indices with Fixed Poverty Lines," Papers 54, Regina - Department of Economics.
    8. David Card & Richard B. Freeman, 1993. "Small Differences That Matter: Labor Markets and Income Maintenance in Canada and the United States," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number card93-1.
    9. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    10. repec:bla:revinw:v:32:y:1986:i:4:p:337-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Shelley Phipps & Thesia I. Garner, 1994. "Are Equivalence Scales The Same For The United States And Canada?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    12. Takayama, Noriyuki, 1979. "Poverty, Income Inequality, and Their Measures: Professor Sen's Axiomatic Approach Reconsidered," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(3), pages 747-759, May.
    13. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1995. "Revisiting the Sen Poverty Index," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(5), pages 1225-1230, September.
    14. Blakorby, Charles & Donaldson, David, 1980. "Ethical Indices for the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 1053-1060, May.
    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. Lars Osberg & Kuan Xu, 1999. "Poverty Intensity: How Well Do Canadian Provinces Compare?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 25(2), pages 179-195, June.
    2. Jean–Yves Duclos & Phillipe Grégoire, 2002. "Absolute and Relative Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 471-492, December.
    3. Osberg, Lars, 2002. "Trends in poverty: the UK in international perspective: how rates mislead and intensity matters," ISER Working Paper Series 2002-10, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2004. "Indicators of Inequality and Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-25, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Deutsch, Joseph & Silber, Jacques, 2008. "On the Watts Multidimensional Poverty Index and its Decomposition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1067-1077, June.
    6. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2000. "Statistical Inference for Stochastic Dominance and for the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1435-1464, November.
    7. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:9:y:2006:i:3:p:1-8 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Garnett Picot & René Morissette & John Myles, 2003. "Low-Income Intensity During the 1990s: The Role of Economic Growth, Employment Earnings and Social Transfers," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(s1), pages 15-40, January.
    9. Sami Bibi & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2007. "Poverty-decreasing indirect tax reforms: Evidence from Tunisia," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(2), pages 165-190, April.
    10. 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.
    11. Picot, Garnett & Morissette, Rene & Myles, John, 2003. "Low-income Intensity During the 1990s: The Role of Economic Growth, Employment Earnings and Social Transfers," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2003172e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    12. Ottó Hajdu, 2021. "A New Generalized Variance Approach for Measuring Multidimensional Inequality and Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 839-861, December.
    13. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Araar, Abdelkrim & Giles, John, 2010. "Chronic and transient poverty: Measurement and estimation, with evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 266-277, March.
    14. Wen-Hao Chen & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2011. "Testing for poverty dominance: an application to Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 44(3), pages 781-803, August.
    15. Barrett, Garry F. & Donald, Stephen G. & Hsu, Yu-Chin, 2016. "Consistent tests for poverty dominance relations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 360-373.
    16. Edwin Fourrier-Nicolaï & Michel Lubrano, 2020. "Bayesian inference for TIP curves: an application to child poverty in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(1), pages 91-111, March.
    17. S. Subramanian, 2009. "Revisiting the Normalization Axiom in Poverty Measurement," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 89-98, Autumn.
    18. Suman Seth and Gaston Yalonetzky, 2018. "Assessing Deprivation with Ordinal Variables: Depth Sensitivity and Poverty Aversion," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp123.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    19. Sabina Alkire, 2008. "Concepts and Measures of Agency," OPHI Working Papers 9, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    20. Sami Bibi, 2004. "Comparing Multidimensional Poverty between Egypt and Tunisia," Cahiers de recherche 0416, CIRPEE.
    21. Guglielmo D’Amico & Philippe Regnault, 2018. "Dynamic Measurement of Poverty: Modeling and Estimation," Sankhya B: The Indian Journal of Statistics, Springer;Indian Statistical Institute, vol. 80(2), pages 305-340, November.

    More about this item

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:35:y:2000:i:1:p:51-81. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.