A note on the Bourguignon–Fields class of poverty indices

Current poverty measurement methodology does not allow a definitive analysis of changes in distribution, through time or between countries, which involve changes in the number or proportion of poor people. By revisiting the continuity and transfer axioms, we show that within the Bourguignon and Fields (1997) class of poverty indices a range of value judgements can be accommodated as to what happens (or should happen) in the case that poverty-line crossings result from regressive transfers. In exposing this, we hope to provide empirical analysts with wider scope to use the Bourguignon–Fields poverty indices in an informed way.     

Australian Poverty Quantified by a Family-Based Poverty Index*

We postulate a family-based poverty index (JD) possessing focus, symmetry, monotonicity and decomposability properties commonly required of individualistic indexes. JD also satisfies reformulated distribution and transfer sensitivity axioms which take account of differences between families in their sizes and poverty lines. We introduce a new axiom, substitution sensitivity, which is satisfied by JD but not by the well-known FGT index. Using JD, we describe Australian poverty in the 1980s. We find that head-count ratios and average income gaps dominate the explanation of differences in poverty across family types and across time. Differences in the distributions of poor incomes make minor contributions.     

A New Approach to Unidimensional Poverty Analysis: Application to the Tunisian Case

Fuzzy conceptualization of privation has been a step closer to more realistic handling of poverty. However, fuzzy approaches to poverty are still grounded on parametric axioms. Moreover, construction of poverty lines within these approaches still relies on ad‐hoc methods. In this paper, we advance instead a fuzzy procedure based on the non‐parametric bootstrap method, allowing us to depict fuzzy unidimensional privation states with boundaries drawn spontaneously from data. Fuzzy non‐parametric measures of privation within each state as well as a collective fuzzy non‐parametric index of poverty are derived, along with their corresponding confidence intervals. The new approach is applied to the analysis of poverty in Tunisia in 2005.     

AN ALTERNATIVE AXIOMATIZATION OF SEN'S POVERTY MEASURE

We provide an alternative axiomatization of Sen's (1976) poverty measure. We derive the measure from the general definition of a poverty measure by using a version of Sen's rank order axiom, and a substantially weaker form of his normalization axiom. These two axioms, together with a continuity axiom, lead uniquely to the measure suggested by Sen (1976).     

Prioritarian Poverty Comparisons with Cardinal and Ordinal Attributes

The ethical view of prioritarianism holds that if an extra bundle of attributes is to be allocated to either of two individuals, then priority should be given to the worse off among the two. We consider multidimensional poverty comparisons with cardinal and ordinal attributes and propose three axioms that operationalize the prioritarian view. Each priority axiom, in combination with a handful of standard properties, characterizes a class of poverty measures.     

Imputing rent in consumption measures,with an application to consumption poverty in Canada, 1997–2009

We consider two econometric problems in the measurement of poverty, both relating to rent imputation. First, we account for quality differences correlated with selection into owner‐occupied versus rental tenure. This correction increases estimated household consumption by 5% over uncorrected estimates and decreases estimated poverty rates quite dramatically. Second, we propose that measurement error induced by the imputation be corrected by imputing a consumption distribution, rather than a consumption level, for each household. This correction increases estimated poverty rates slightly. We use our methods to measure consumption poverty in Canada, and find that the imputation strategy used influences the patterns observed. For example, measured poverty among the elderly barely declines when one uses our methods, in contrast to the almost 6 percentage point reduction we find using traditional methods. In our assessment of the over‐time evolution of consumption poverty, we find that substantial progress has been made on overall poverty and on child poverty, but that poverty among the elderly hardly changed.     

An aspect of variable population poverty comparisons

This paper demonstrates that the property of Replication Invariance, generally considered to be an innocuous requirement for the extension of fixed-population poverty comparisons to variable-population contexts, is incompatible with other plausible variable- and fixed-population axioms. This fact raises questions about what constitutes an appropriate headcount assessment of poverty, in terms of whether one should focus on the proportion, or the absolute numbers, of the population in poverty. This observation, in turn, has important implications for tracking poverty and setting targets for its reduction or elimination.     

Microcredit,Labor, and Poverty Impacts in Urban Mexico

Improved household accessibility to credit is a significant determinant of intra‐household allocation of labor resources with important implications for productivity, income, and poverty status. However, credit accessibility could also have wider impacts on poverty if it leads to new hires outside the household. This paper contributes to the existing literature on microcredit in two important ways. First, it investigates the routes through which microcredit reaches those in poverty outside the household. We test whether by lending to the vulnerable non‐poor microcredit can indirectly benefit poor laborers through increased employment. Second, we conduct the study in the context of urban poverty Mexico. This is relevant when considering that labor often represents the only source of livelihoods to the extreme urban poor. Our findings point to significant trickle‐down effects of microcredit that benefit poor laborers; however, these effects are only observed after loan‐supported enterprising households achieve earnings well above the poverty line.     

Growth-equity decomposition of a change in poverty: An axiomatic approach

This paper studies a class of subgroup decomposable poverty measures whose changes may be decomposed into a growth component and a redistribution component. A set of reasonable axioms leads inexorably to a combination of the Watts measure and the poverty gap measure.     

多维贫困测量及述评简

贫困的测量是各国贫困研究关注的焦点,测量方法随着对贫困概念认识的深化不断变化。如何科学合理地对多维贫困指数进行筛选,成为多维贫困分析和测量的关键。研究发现,非公理标准下的多维贫困指数具有算法简单、操作方便等优点,但缺陷在于各维度间相关性较强且权重分配具有主观性;公理化标准下的多维贫困指数,虽然在指数维度加总问题上存在异议,但满足了大部分公理的要求,且测量结果更稳健。     

CHILD POVERTY IN CANADA

The evolution of measured poverty may reflect socio-economic developments, particular measurement choices or the effect (or lack of effect) of policy initiatives. We report a "case study" of child poverty in Canada between 1986 and 2000, a period when the elimination of child poverty was a stated policy goal, but reported child poverty rates did not change significantly. We find that the apparent persistence of child poverty in Canada is remarkably robust to measurement choices, and cannot easily be explained by socioeconomic developments.     

Living Decently

One of the reasons why poverty lines became popular at the turn of the century was their promise of a scientific technique that would dispense with moralising about poverty. We argue that a price paid in this quest has been an impoverishment of the richness of the notion of 'a decent life', the moral concept underlying poverty. In addition, poverty lines have in practice been more to do with inequality at the bottom end of the income distribution than with poverty. The purpose of this article is to rehabilitate the measurement of poverty, and to make it credible. We set out our preferred method of poverty measurement, and illustrate it using data from the Australian Standard of Living Study. A feature of our approach is to distinguish clearly between issues of inequality and issues of poverty. Questions such as who is on the bottom of the income distribution, whether this has changed over time, and how income levels of the worst off compare with the mean, are questions of inequality. As such, the answers tell us nothing at all about how the worst off are actually living. To answer that question, we require direct measures of consumption and of social participation. These measures are not as simple, but they provide us with knowledge about poverty that poverty lines have promised, but have not delivered in a credible fashion.     

Poverty Reduction and Economic Structure: Comparative Path Analysis for Mozambique and Vietnam

While economic growth generally reduces income poverty, there are pronounced differences in the strength of this relationship across countries. Typical explanations for this variation include measurement errors in growth–poverty accounting and different compositions of economic growth. We explore the additional influence of economic structure in determining a country's growth–poverty relationship and performance. Using structural path analysis, we compare the experiences of Mozambique and Vietnam—two countries with similar levels and compositions of economic growth but divergent poverty outcomes. We find that the structure of the Vietnamese economy more naturally lends itself to generating broad‐based growth. A given agricultural demand expansion in Mozambique will, ceteris paribus, achieve much less rural income growth than in Vietnam. Inadequate education, trade and transport systems are found to be more severe structural constraints to poverty reduction in Mozambique than in Vietnam. Investing in these areas can significantly enhance the effectiveness of Mozambican growth to reduce poverty.     

中国贫困的多维测度

本文认为,用单一的收入标准来了解贫困会低估个体真实的贫困状况,很难全面反映个体贫困的复杂性、脆弱性和持久性。本文基于Sen的能力方法,使用中国健康营养调查数据,利用模糊集方法测度中国的多维贫困状况。结论显示,相对于收入贫困,个体的教育、健康和医疗保险等贫困状况更为严重;多维贫困关于测度方法、权重较敏感,等权重下的AF多维贫困被其它方法与权重下的多维贫困严格占优,而在Betti＆Verma权重下的AF多维贫困中,则住房、卫生设施和健康对多维贫困的贡献更大;多维贫困在西部、农村及女性中依然更严重。     

Stochastic dominance and decomposable measures of inequality and poverty

In this paper, we characterize some new links between stochastic dominance and the measurement of inequality and poverty. We show that: for second-degree normalized stochastic dominance (NSD), the weighted area between the NSD curve of a distribution and that of the equalized distribution is a decomposable inequality measure; for first-degree and second-degree censored stochastic dominance (CSD), the weighted area between the CSD curve of a distribution and that of the zero-poverty distribution is a decomposable poverty measure. These characterizations provide graphical representations for decomposable inequality and poverty measures in the same manner as Lorenz curve does for the Gini index. The extensions of the links to higher degrees of stochastic dominance are also investigated.     

Unit-Consistent Poverty Indices

This paper characterizes unit-consistent poverty indices. The unit consistency axiom requires that poverty rankings (not poverty indices) remain unaffected when all incomes and the poverty lines are expressed in different measuring units. We consider two general frameworks of poverty measurement: the semi-individualistic framework that includes all decomposable indices and all rank-based indices; and the Dalton–Hagenaars framework that contains a subset of decomposable indices. Within the semi-individualistic framework, classes of unit-consistent poverty indices can be characterized for different value judgements about poverty measurement. Within the Dalton-Hagenaars framework, unit-consistent poverty indices are completely characterized without invoking any value judgement a priori. I thank Peter Lambert, Mike Hoy, Thesia Garner and an anonymous referee for their very helpful comments and suggestions.     

Fuzzy Chronic Poverty: A Proposed Response to Measurement Error for Intertemporal Poverty Measurement

A number of chronic poverty measures are now empirically applied to quantify the prevalence and intensity of chronic poverty, vis‐à‐vis transient experiences, using panel data. Welfare trajectories over time are assessed in order to identify the chronically poor and distinguish them from the non‐poor, or the transiently poor, and assess the extent and intensity of intertemporal poverty. We examine the implications of measurement error in the welfare outcome for some popular discontinuous chronic poverty measures, and propose corrections to these measures that seeks to minimize the consequences of measurement error. The approach is based on a novel criterion for the identification of chronic poverty that draws on fuzzy set theory. We illustrate the empirical relevance of the approach with a panel dataset from rural Ethiopia and some simulations.     

The redistributive effects of political reservation for minorities: Evidence from India

We examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged minority groups on poverty. To address the concern that political reservation is endogenous, we take advantage of the state-time variation in reservation in state legislative assemblies in India generated by national policies that cause reservations to be revised and the time lags with which revised reservations are implemented. Using data on sixteen major Indian states for the period 1960-2000, we find that increasing the share of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes significantly reduces poverty while increasing the share of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes has no impact on poverty. Political reservation for Scheduled Tribes has a greater effect on rural poverty than urban poverty, and appears to benefit people near the poverty line as well as those far below it.