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Constructing Comparable Global Poverty Trends

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Gerszon Mahler
  • Elizabeth Foster
  • Christoph Lakner
  • Zander Prinsloo
  • Rostand Tchouakam Mbouendeu
  • Samuel K. Tetteh-Baah

Abstract

Countries frequently revise how they measure income or consumption due to changes in data collection and questionnaire design. These changes create comparability breaks in poverty trends over time. This paper develops three methods to create global, regional, and country-level poverty trends that are comparable within countries over time. It does so by using national accounts growth to bridge non-comparable sequences. Accounting for comparability breaks creates large differences in some country-level poverty trends, but the global extreme poverty trend built from these comparable poverty series remains largely unchanged.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Gerszon Mahler & Elizabeth Foster & Christoph Lakner & Zander Prinsloo & Rostand Tchouakam Mbouendeu & Samuel K. Tetteh-Baah, 2025. "Constructing Comparable Global Poverty Trends," Global Poverty Monitoring Technical Note Series 45, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbgpmt:45
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hai‐Anh Dang & Dean Jolliffe & Calogero Carletto, 2019. "Data Gaps, Data Incomparability, And Data Imputation: A Review Of Poverty Measurement Methods For Data‐Scarce Environments," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 757-797, July.
    2. Talip Kilic & Thomas Pave Sohnesen, 2019. "Same Question But Different Answer: Experimental Evidence on Questionnaire Design's Impact on Poverty Measured by Proxies," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(1), pages 144-165, March.
    3. Beegle, Kathleen & De Weerdt, Joachim & Friedman, Jed & Gibson, John, 2012. "Methods of household consumption measurement through surveys: Experimental results from Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 3-18.
    4. 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.
    5. John Gibson & Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Jed Friedman, 2015. "What does Variation in Survey Design Reveal about the Nature of Measurement Errors in Household Consumption?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 77(3), pages 466-474, June.
    6. Foster, Elizabeth Mary & Jolliffe, Dean Mitchell & Lara Ibarra, Gabriel & Lakner, Christoph & Tetteh Baah, Samuel Kofi, 2025. "Global Poverty Revisited Using 2021 PPPs and New Data on Consumption," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11137, The World Bank.
    7. repec:lic:licosd:41819 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sinha Roy, Sutirtha & van der Weide, Roy, 2025. "Estimating poverty for India after 2011 using private-sector survey data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
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    11. Friedman, Jed & Beegle, Kathleen & De Weerdt, Joachim & Gibson, John, 2017. "Decomposing response error in food consumption measurement: Implications for survey design from a randomized survey experiment in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 94-111.
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