Knowledge Centre : Economy : Economic Disparity And Poverty : Measuring Poverty
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- The Meaning and Measurement of Poverty: A Look into the Global Debate
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Development Gateway, Author: Mona Mowafi. For years, policymakers largely took for granted the legitimacy and validity of the absolute poverty line as a means for defining and measuring poverty worldwide. Recently, however, with increased pressure to answer for failed policies in the past and to meet renewed commitments for the future, the international community has doubled up its efforts to examine the root causes of poverty. With researchers from a cross-section of disciplines contributing to this project, several innovative approaches have emerged. In her paper "The Meaning and Measurement of Poverty: A Look into the Global Debate" Mona Mowafi reviews the most prominent methods under consideration: the income poverty, human poverty, capabilities, and participatory approaches.
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/highlights/default/showMore.do
(Added: Fri Oct 01 2004 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 354)
- A Capability Centred Approach to Environmental Sustainability: is productive employment the missing link between micro and macro policies [PDF]
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This paper, produced by the United Nations Development Programmes' International Poverty Centre, examines economic growth, personal well-being, the environment and employment using the Capabilities Approach to poverty measurement popularised by Amartya Sen. The paper's authors discuss how different economic strategies fare with respect to poverty reduction (as defined using the capabilities approach) and environmental sustainability.
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/newsletters/WorkingPaper13.pdf
(Added: Tue Apr 18 2006 Hits: 146)
- Are Estimates of Poverty in Latin America Reliable? [pdf]
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This One Pager questions the validity of the 'one-dollar-a-day' and 'two-dollars-a-day' measurements of poverty in Latin America. Alternatively, the author argues, there are other methods that better capture the state of poverty (Sanjay Reddy, IPC, May 2008).
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager52.pdf
(Added: Tue May 06 2008 Hits: 37)
- Chinese Poverty: Assessing the Impact of Alternative Assumptions
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This paper investigates how estimates of the extent and trend of consumption poverty in China between 1990 and 2001 vary as a result of alternative plausible assumptions concerning the poverty line and estimated levels of consumption. The exercise is motivated by the existence of considerable uncertainty about the appropriate poverty lines to apply and the level and distribution of resources in China. The essay concludes that commonly held beliefs about decreasing poverty in China in the 1990s are backed up by a variety of different poverty measurement techniques and assumptions.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=799844
(Added: Tue Apr 17 2007 Hits: 136)
- Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09: Escaping Poverty Traps
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This report by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre examines the lives of seven individuals living in chronic poverty. It also suggests a range of policy options that could be introduced at the national level for alleviating some of this chronic poverty.
http://www.chronicpoverty.org/pubfiles/CPR2_whole_report.pdf
(Added: Wed Jul 09 2008 Hits: 30)
- Chronic poverty: scrutinizing estimates, patterns, correlates, and explanations (PDF)
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Shahin Yaqub, Poverty Research Unit, School of African and Asian Studies, Sussex University. Working Paper No 21 Chronic Poverty Research Centre, October 2002. The paper lists estimates of chronic poverty incidences in 25 countries. Research reveals its 'patterns' and socioeconomic 'correlates', but hardly 'explanations'. The patterns are three (economic insecurity, short-range mobility and path dependency) and the correlates are four (spatial, demographics and household type, human capital and labor, and physical assets). Important similarities are observed between developing and affluent countries in such patterns and correlates. In countries of vastly differing wealth, apparently people face some similar problems in fully participating and the burden of poverty is unequally shared over time, i.e. chronic poverty. Recognizing this, the paper draws on research in affluent countries centered more closely on life experiences. Such 'lifefull' approaches to chronic poverty contrast with present 'lifeless' approaches in developing countries. Useful explanations should understand the reversibility of chronic poverty, timeliness of reversals and relevance of outcomes.
(Added: Wed Jun 11 2003 Modified: Tue Sep 12 2006 Hits: 277)
- Counting the poor: do the poor count?
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The Bretton Woods Project comments on the debate as to whether the world "on the right track" in terms of poverty reduction? They say: the World Bank seems to believe so. Statements by the World Bank on good policies, aid effectiveness and selectivity give the impression that resources allocated to the World Bank are efficiently contributing to poverty reduction. The case for aid has been abundantly made by James Wolfensohn after 11 September, in the run-up to the Monterrey conference and during negotiations on IDA replenishment. However Sanjay Reddy and Thomas Pogge of Columbia University, in a paper entitled How not to count the poor give a scathing account of the problems with the World Bank's poverty numbers. They say an ill-defined poverty line, a misleading and inaccurate measure of purchasing power equivalence, and false precision are the three main errors that may lead to "a large understatement of the extent of global income poverty and to an incorrect inference that it has declined." This allows the World Bank to insist that the world is indeed "on the right track" in terms of poverty reduction strategy, attributing this 'success' to the design and implementation of 'good' or 'better policies'.
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/governance/g2904countpoor.html
(Added: Mon Jun 23 2003 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 329)
- Declining Poverty in Latin America? A Critical Analysis of New Estimates by International Institutions
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Indicators of progress in overcoming poverty in Latin America have been heralded recently by international institutions. Yet a closer look at data from the World Bank and the United Nations reveals contradictions that are not easily resolved by reference to the underlying methodologies. This paper provides an introduction to how poverty is measured, what the data indicate about trends in poverty, and reasons to tread cautiously in interpreting it as evidence of progress or stagnation (Helwege & Birch, September 2007).
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/07-02LatinAmPoverty.pdf
(Added: Wed Dec 19 2007 Hits: 117)
- Does GDP really capture economy's health?
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America's so-called gross domestic product is an enormous number and an important number, but is it the right number? That's the question that comes before the US Senate Wednesday in an unusual hearing on the far from perfect science of measuring economic activity. CSM, 8 March, 2008
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0312/p02s01-usec.html
(Added: Thu Mar 13 2008 Hits: 89)
- Dollar a day: how much does it say? [PDF - 255KB]
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In 1990 the World Bank proposed a common international poverty threshold of one dollar per day in 1985 purchasing power parity prices. The '$1-a-day' poverty line immediately grabbed much attention and has gained further acceptance in recent years when the UN Millennium Summit adopted it as the benchmark for monitoring progress in reducing extreme poverty around the world. Yet it is far from clear that the $1 a day line accurately captures international poverty levels. This report produced by the UNDP's International Poverty Centre contains articles from a variety of academics who work in the field of poverty measurement. The articles debate the usefulness of the $1 a day line as well as discussing alternatives.
http://www.undp.org/povertycentre/newsletters/infocus4sep04eng.pdf
(Added: Tue Feb 28 2006 Hits: 294)
- Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook (PDF)
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Edited by Deepa Narayan, World Bank, June 2002. Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook is an outcome of World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, which highlighted opportunity, empowerment, and security as key elements in the creation and implementation of poverty reduction strategies. This book provides a framework for empowerment that concentrates on increasing poor people's freedom of choice and action to shape their own lives. This framework pertains to five areas of action to improve development effectiveness-provision of basic services, improved local governance, improved national governance, access to justice and legal aid, and pro-poor market development. This Sourcebook gives 20 "Tools and Practices," which concentrate on a wide-range of topics to encourage the empowerment of the poor from poor people's enterprises, information and communication technologies to diagnostic tools including corruption surveys and citizen report cards. Available in PDF.
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1256877
(Added: Fri Jul 26 2002 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 411)
- Ending world poverty: is the debate settled? [PDF - 423 KB]
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This Paper by Jan Vandemoortele of the UNDP argues that - contrary to prevailing wisdom - economic growth alone is not sufficient to engender poverty reduction. Vandemoortele illustrates his argument using the case of China where maintained strong economic growth has led to significant poverty reduction in some time periods, but very little in others. Vandemoortele then argues the case for what he terms pro-poor growth (growth that is effective in reducing poverty). Finally, he examines the ramifications of this for national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the Millennium Development Goals.
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/newsletters/OnePager12.pdf
(Added: Wed Feb 01 2006 Hits: 433)
- Global Distribution of Poverty
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The Global Poverty Mapping Project seeks to enhance current understanding of the global distribution of poverty and the geographic and biophysical conditions of where the poor live. Additionally, the project aims to assist policy makers, development agencies, and the poor themselves in designing interventions to reduce poverty. On this wesite, you can download poverty data sets, explore data catalogs, and view and download poverty maps.
http://www.ciesin.org/povmap/index.html
(Added: Wed Nov 29 2006 Hits: 148)
- Has World Poverty Really Fallen?
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This paper evaluates the claim that world consumption poverty has fallen since 1990 in light of alternative assumptions about the extent of initial poverty and the rate of subsequent poverty reduction in China, India, and the rest of the developing world. The paper concludes that, because of uncertainties in relation to the extent and trend of poverty in China, India, and the rest of the developing world, global poverty may or may not have increased.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=921153#PaperDownload
(Added: Tue Apr 17 2007 Hits: 84)
- Headcount Poverty Comparisons [PDF]
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This brief article written for the UNDP's International Poverty Centre discusses the measurement of poverty and, in particular, headcount poverty measures. Headcount poverty measures are, as the name would suggest, counts of the number of people (or households) who earn less than a predetermined income poverty line. They are by far and away the most common form of poverty measurement used internationally, but they are not without their limitations; some of these are discussed in this article.
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/newsletters/OnePager18.pdf
(Added: Tue Mar 21 2006 Hits: 183)
- How Not to Count the Poor (PDF)
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A paper critical of the World Bank's estimates of global income poverty, by economist Sanjay Reddy and the philosopher Thomas Pogge (PDF 499KB). See also summary of this report, "Unknown: The Extent, Distribution, and Trend of Global Income Poverty"
http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf
(Added: Mon Jun 23 2003 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 421)
- How Not to Count the Poor! A Reply to Ravallion (PDF)
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The World Bank, via staff memer Martin Ravallion, have responded to Reddy and Pogge's repot "How Not to Count the Poor". This is a reply to that reply by the original authors. (PDF 39KB)
http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/poggereddyreply.pdf
(Added: Mon Jun 23 2003 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 287)
- How Not to Count the Poor! A Reply to Reddy (PDF)
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The World Bank, via staff memer Martin Ravallion, have responded to Reddy and Pogge's report "How Not to Count the Poor". He writes: Reddy and Pogge begin their paper as follows: How many poor people are there in the world? This simple question is surprisingly difficult to answer. I would argue instead that there is nothing simple about the question, and nothing surprising about how difficult it is to answer it. Reddy and Pogge have oversimplified the problem of measuring poverty in the world, and exaggerated the supposed faults in the Bank's methods. (PDF 48KB)
http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/wbreply.pdf
(Added: Mon Jun 23 2003 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 299)
- In Focus: Poverty and the City [PDF - 454KB]
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This report, produced by the UNDP's International Poverty Centre, contains a series of articles looking at the measurement and nature of urban poverty. It also offers some tentative suggestions on how to tackle urban poverty. The first page of the report contains an amazing aerial photo of Gavea (one of Rio's wealthiest suburbs) and Rocinha (the city's largest Favela). The two suburbs exist side by side and the report also provides some telling statistics about the differences in quality of life that exist between them. Including the fact that people in Gavea live, on average, 13 years longer than their neighbours in Rocinha.
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/newsletters/infocus7Sep05eng.pdf
(Added: Tue Mar 21 2006 Hits: 286)
- Mind the gap the debate over global inequality heats up
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Professor Dani Rodrik is Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at the JFK School of Government and a Faculty Associate at the CID. Rodrik comments on the debate centering on how to measure poverty.
http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidinthenews/articles/Globe_010503.html
(Added: Mon Jun 23 2003 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 231)
- Monitoring Global Poverty: Better Options for the Future (PDF)
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A slide presentation by Sanjay Reddy and Thomas Pogge outlining the main issues on monitoring global poverty (PDF 118KB).
http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/BetterOptions.pdf
(Added: Mon Jun 23 2003 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 191)
- New study says that global growth fails to increase propsperity
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Although the number of official democracies is growing, many people are still excluded from political decision-making or are even being suppressed, and global growth is not increasing the fortunes of the poor, according to the third Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI), an international comparative study of 125 transformation countries by the German Bertelsmann Foundation (18/2/08).
http://www.bertelsmann-transformation-index.de
(Added: Thu Feb 21 2008 Hits: 51)
- PovcalNet
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PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows you to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. It also allows you to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of your choosing. PovcalNet is self-contained; it has reliable built-in software that immediately does the relevant calculations for you from the built-in database.
http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/jsp/index.jsp
(Added: Tue Mar 08 2005 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 133)
- Poverty Assessment Tools
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USAID website dedicated to the development of tools for assessing the poverty level of its microenterprise beneficiaries.
(Added: Fri May 21 2004 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 180)
- Poverty In Focus- PSIA Gauging Poverty Impacts [pdf]
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This issue of Poverty in Focus highlights the PSIA and PIA concepts and the experience so far of using these analytical tools for enhancing policy, programme and project effectiveness in reducing poverty (International Poverty Centre, April 2008).
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPovertyInFocus14.pdf
(Added: Fri Apr 04 2008 Modified: Fri Apr 18 2008 Hits: 72)
