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Toward better global poverty measures

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  • Martin Ravallion

    (Georgetown University)

Abstract

While much progress has been made over the last 25 years in measuring global poverty, there are a number of challenges ahead. The paper discusses three sets of problems: (i) how to allow for social effects on welfare, recognizing the identification issues involved; (ii) the need to monitor progress in raising the consumption floor above its biological level, in addition to counting the number of people living near the floor; and (iii) addressing the longstanding concerns about prevailing approaches to making inter-country comparisons of price levels facing poor people. Some suggestions are offered for operational solutions, building on past research.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Ravallion, 2016. "Toward better global poverty measures," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 227-248, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:14:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s10888-016-9323-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-016-9323-9
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    3. Ingvild Almås & Timothy K.M. Beatty & Thomas F. Crossley, 2018. "Lost in Translation: What do Engel Curves Tell us about the Cost of Living?," CESifo Working Paper Series 6886, CESifo.
    4. Richard Bluhm & Denis de Crombrugghe & Adam Szirmai, 2016. "Poverty Accounting. A fractional response approach to poverty decomposition," Working Papers 413, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. 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.
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    8. 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.
    9. Arief Anshory Yusuf & Andy Sumner, 2017. "Multidimensional poverty in Indonesia: How inclusive has economic growth been?," Departmental Working Papers 2017-09, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    10. Amani Kahloul & Rim Lahmandi‐Ayed & Hejer Lasram, 2019. "Poverty, competition, democracy, and ownership: A general equilibrium model with vertical preferences," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(6), pages 1143-1178, December.
    11. Gregorio Izquierdo Llanes & Antonio Salcedo Galiano, 2023. "Why does equivalization matter? An application to the monetary poverty in the sustainable development goals framework," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 2575-2589, June.
    12. Kerner, Andrew & Crabtree, Charles, 2018. "The Political Economy of Data Production," SocArXiv qsxae, Center for Open Science.
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    14. Fahd Rehman & Russel J. Cooper, 2023. "Effective GDP: A Cross‐Country Comparison," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 619-652, March.
    15. Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray & Sattwik Santra, 2016. "Global and Country Poverty Rates, Welfare Rankings of the Regions and Purchasing Power Parities: How Robust Are the Results?," Monash Economics Working Papers 11-16, Monash University, Department of Economics.

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