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Measuring poverty with the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke indexes based on the Gamma distribution

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  • Fernández-Morales, Antonio

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is the estimation of the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke family of poverty indexes using the Gamma distribution as a continuous representation of the distribution of incomes. The expressions of this family of poverty indexes associated with the Gamma probability model and their asymptotic distributions are derived in the text, both for an exogenous and a relative (to the mean) poverty line. Finally, a Monte Carlo experiment is performed to compare three different methods of estimation for grouped data.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernández-Morales, Antonio, 2016. "Measuring poverty with the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke indexes based on the Gamma distribution," MPRA Paper 69648, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:69648
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James B. McDonald, 2008. "Some Generalized Functions for the Size Distribution of Income," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, in: Duangkamon Chotikapanich (ed.), Modeling Income Distributions and Lorenz Curves, chapter 3, pages 37-55, Springer.
    2. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    3. Duangkamon Chotikapanich & William E. Griffiths, 2008. "Estimating Income Distributions Using a Mixture of Gamma Densities," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, in: Duangkamon Chotikapanich (ed.), Modeling Income Distributions and Lorenz Curves, chapter 16, pages 285-302, Springer.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C46 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Specific Distributions
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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