IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v103y2018icp297-310.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are we underestimating urban poverty?

Author

Listed:
  • Lucci, Paula
  • Bhatkal, Tanvi
  • Khan, Amina

Abstract

Data collection methods and poverty measures have not caught up with the reality of an increasingly urbanised world; as a result, urban poverty may be underestimated. This has important implications for targeting interventions and allocating resources in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Several problems affect the measurement of urban poverty: definitions of ‘slum’ settlements vary widely, data collection may undercount slum populations, insufficient data disaggregation may conceal intra-city disparities, and common indicators and assumptions may be ill-suited to assessing both income and multidimensional poverty in urban contexts. However, not enough is known about the extent to which these issues affect the resulting estimates. This paper contributes to the existing literature by illustrating the scale of the bias associated with common practices in measuring urban poverty at different stages of the production of poverty estimates. The analysis draws on selected examples in the literature alongside new analysis of data from Demographic and Health Surveys and Household Income and Expenditure Surveys. The article also provides recommendations on how to address each of these problems to improve urban poverty measurement.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucci, Paula & Bhatkal, Tanvi & Khan, Amina, 2018. "Are we underestimating urban poverty?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 297-310.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:103:y:2018:i:c:p:297-310
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.10.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17303467
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.10.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2015. "Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures of World Economics : A Comprehensive Report of the 2011 International Comparison Program," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 20526.
    2. World Bank & International Monetary Fund, 2013. "Global Monitoring Report 2013 : Rural-Urban Dynamics and the Millennium Development Goals," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13330.
    3. Shaohua Chen & Martin Ravallion, 2010. "The Developing World is Poorer than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1577-1625.
    4. Benjamin Marx & Thomas Stoker & Tavneet Suri, 2013. "The Economics of Slums in the Developing World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(4), pages 187-210, Fall.
    5. McGranahan, Gordon & Mitlin, Diana, 2016. "Learning from Sustained Success: How Community-Driven Initiatives to Improve Urban Sanitation Can Meet the Challenges," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 307-317.
    6. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "China is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4621, The World Bank.
    7. John Gibson, 2016. "Poverty Measurement: We Know Less than Policy Makers Realize," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 430-442, September.
    8. Jolliffe, Dean & Prydz, Espen Beer, 2015. "Global Poverty Goals and Prices: How Purchasing Power Parity Matters," IZA Discussion Papers 9064, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. 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.
    10. Carr-Hill, Roy, 2013. "Missing Millions and Measuring Development Progress," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 30-44.
    11. Menno Pradhan & Martin Ravallion, 2000. "Measuring Poverty Using Qualitative Perceptions Of Consumption Adequacy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(3), pages 462-471, August.
    12. Sugata Bag, Suman Seth and Anish Gupta, 2016. "A Comparative Study Of Living Conditions In Slums Of Three Metro Cities In India," Working papers 253, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    13. Alan Gilbert, 2013. "How to help, and how not to help, the poor in the megacities of the South," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 628-635, October.
    14. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon & John Knight, 2006. "Subjective well-being poverty vs. Income poverty and capabilities poverty?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(7), pages 1199-1224.
    15. Ravallion, Martin, 2012. "Poor, or just feeling poor ? on using subjective data in measuring poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5968, The World Bank.
    16. Cecilia Tacoli, 2007. "Poverty, Inequality and the Underestimation of Rural–urban Linkages," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 50(2), pages 90-95, June.
    17. Marty Chen, 2005. "Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-10, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Jonathan Haughton & Shahidur R. Khandker, 2009. "Handbook on Poverty and Inequality," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11985.
    19. Dean Jolliffe, 2006. "Poverty, Prices, and Place: How Sensitive is the Spatial Distribution of Poverty to Cost of Living Adjustments?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(2), pages 296-310, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Srivastava, Abhinav & Mukherjee, Srabanti & Jebarajakirthy, Charles, 2020. "Aspirational consumption at the bottom of pyramid: A review of literature and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 246-259.
    2. Janz, Teresa & Augsburg, Britta & Gassmann, Franziska & Nimeh, Zina, 2023. "Leaving no one behind: Urban poverty traps in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    3. Kovacic, Zora & Musango, Josephine Kaviti & Ambole, Lorraine Amollo & Buyana, Kareem & Smit, Suzanne & Anditi, Christer & Mwau, Baraka & Ogot, Madara & Lwasa, Shuaib & Brent, Alan C. & Nsangi, Gloria , 2019. "Interrogating differences: A comparative analysis of Africa’s informal settlements," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 614-627.
    4. Nuril Iksyaniyah & Luqman Hakim & Agung Listyadi, 2021. "Effects of Work Experience, Education Level, and Wages on Employee Performance with Religiosity as Moderating Variables," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 16(1), pages 355-368, February.
    5. Robles Aguilar, Gisela & Sumner, Andy, 2020. "Who are the world’s poor? A new profile of global multidimensional poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Guie Li & Zhongliang Cai & Yun Qian & Fei Chen, 2021. "Identifying Urban Poverty Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning Approaches: Implications for Housing Inequality," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Peng Peng & Hui Mao, 2023. "The Effect of Digital Financial Inclusion on Relative Poverty Among Urban Households: A Case Study on China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 377-407, January.
    8. Marion Borderon & Kelsea B. Best & Karen Bailey & Doug L. Hopping & Mackenzie Dove & Chelsea L. Cervantes de Blois, 2021. "The risks of invisibilization of populations and places in environment-migration research," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Tess Shiras & Oliver Cumming & Joe Brown & Becelar Muneme & Rassul Nala & Robert Dreibelbis, 2018. "Shared Sanitation Management and the Role of Social Capital: Findings from an Urban Sanitation Intervention in Maputo, Mozambique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-13, October.
    10. Nakamura, Shohei & Avner, Paolo, 2021. "Spatial distributions of job accessibility, housing rents, and poverty: The case of Nairobi," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    11. Puspita Ayuningtyas Prawesti, 2017. "Infrastructural Development and Poverty Alleviation in Indonesia (Municipal Panel Data 2002 � 2013)," GATR Journals jber150, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    12. Jinfang Wang & Hui Xiao & Xiaojin Liu, 2022. "The Impact of Social Capital on Multidimensional Poverty of Rural Households in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Clemente Ávila‐Parra & David Escamilla‐Guerrero & Oscar Gálvez‐Soriano, 2024. "Minimum eligibility age for social pensions and household poverty: Evidence from Mexico," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 175-196, January.
    14. Jiang, Lu & Yan, Meng & Wang, Yong & Yang, Pu & Shi, Xiaonan, 2024. "Are we underestimating inner-megacity energy poverty in developing countries? Evidence from 2054 households in beijing, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    15. Sinharoy, Sheela S. & Pittluck, Rachel & Clasen, Thomas, 2019. "Review of drivers and barriers of water and sanitation policies for urban informal settlements in low-income and middle-income countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Mahumane, Gilberto & Mulder, Peter, 2022. "Urbanization of energy poverty? The case of Mozambique," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    17. Roli Misra & Nidhi Tewari, 2022. "Gender, Migration, and Precarity: A Case Study of Migrant Women Waste Pickers from Assam," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 1179-1192, December.
    18. Anita Rath, 2022. "Urban poverty and vulnerability in global South: An alternative multidimensional framework for measurement and targeting," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 376-395, April.
    19. Leandro S. Pongeluppe, 2022. "The favela effect: Spatial inequalities and firm strategies in disadvantaged urban communities," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(13), pages 2777-2808, December.

    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. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Shaohua Chen & Andrew Dabalen & Yuri Dikhanov & Nada Hamadeh & Dean Jolliffe & Ambar Narayan & Espen Beer Prydz & Ana Revenga & Prem Sangraula & Umar Serajuddin & Nobuo Yosh, 2016. "A global count of the extreme poor in 2012: data issues, methodology and initial results," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 141-172, June.
    2. Zsoka Koczan, 2022. "Perceptions of economic well‐being in the Western Balkans," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 845-867, October.
    3. La-Bhus Fah Jirasavetakul & Christoph Lakner, 2020. "The Distribution of Consumption Expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Inequality Among All Africans," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-25.
    4. Jolliffe,Dean Mitchell & Prydz,Espen Beer & Jolliffe,Dean Mitchell & Prydz,Espen Beer, 2015. "Global poverty goals and prices : how purchasing power parity matters," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7256, The World Bank.
    5. John Knight & Ramani Gunatilak, 2014. "Subjective Well-being and Social Evaluation in a Poor Country," CSAE Working Paper Series 2014-09, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    6. Majumder,Amita & Ray,Ranjan & Santra,Sattwik, 2015. "Preferences, purchasing power parity, and inequality : analytical framework, propositions, and empirical evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7395, The World Bank.
    7. Sugata Bag & Suman Seth, 2018. "Does It Matter How We Assess Standard of Living? Evidence from Indian Slums Comparing Monetary and Multidimensional Approaches," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 715-754, November.
    8. Das Gupta, Monica & Bongaarts, John & Cleland, John, 2011. "Population, poverty, and sustainable development : a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5719, The World Bank.
    9. Vinod Thomas, 2009. "Income Disparity and Growth," Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies, Emerging Markets Forum, vol. 1(1), pages 63-86, January.
    10. John Gibson, 2016. "Poverty Measurement: We Know Less than Policy Makers Realize," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 430-442, September.
    11. Kilic, Talip & Palacios-López, Amparo & Goldstein, Markus, 2015. "Caught in a Productivity Trap: A Distributional Perspective on Gender Differences in Malawian Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 416-463.
    12. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2021. "Regional employment support programs and multidimensional poverty of youth in Turkey," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 583-609, December.
    13. Sugata Bag & Suman Seth, 2016. "Understanding Standard of Living and Correlates in Slums - An Analysis Using Monetary Versus Multidimensional Approaches in Three Indian Cities," Working papers 263, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    14. Dean Jolliffe & Espen Beer Prydz, 2016. "Estimating international poverty lines from comparable national thresholds," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 185-198, June.
    15. Filandri, Marianna & Pasqua, Silvia & Struffolino, Emanuela, 2020. "Being Working Poor or Feeling Working Poor? The Role of Work Intensity and Job Stability for Subjective Poverty," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 147(3), pages 781-803.
    16. Senakpon F. A. Dedehouanou & Johan Swinnen & Miet Maertens, 2013. "Does Contracting Make Farmers Happy? Evidence from Senegal," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59, pages 138-160, October.
    17. Egla Mansi & Eglantina Hysa & Mirela Panait & Marian Catalin Voica, 2020. "Poverty—A Challenge for Economic Development? Evidences from Western Balkan Countries and the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-24, September.
    18. Hasan Vergil & Fuat Sekmen & Haşmet Gökirmak & Sukru Apaydin, 2022. "2008 financial crisis and income distribution in Turkey," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 2627-2643, August.

    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:eee:wdevel:v:103:y:2018:i:c:p:297-310. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.