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A Behaviour-based Approach to the Estimation of Poverty in India

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  • Rohini Somanathan
  • Ingvild Almas
  • Anders Kjelsrud

Abstract

Almost a sixth of the world’s population and a large fraction of its poorest people live in India. Until recently, national poverty estimates were widely criticized because they relied on aggregate price indices. This paper, suggest an alternative method to estimate poverty that circumvents direct micro price measurement and aggregation of such micro price measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Rohini Somanathan & Ingvild Almas & Anders Kjelsrud, 2015. "A Behaviour-based Approach to the Estimation of Poverty in India," Working Papers id:7812, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:7812
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    2. Andrew Dabalen & Isis Gaddis & Nga Thi Viet Nguyen, 2020. "CPI Bias and its Implications for Poverty Reduction in Africa," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(1), pages 13-44, March.
    3. Gibson, John & Le, Trinh, 2019. "Using local expert knowledge to measure prices: Evidence from a survey experiment in Vietnam," MPRA Paper 92533, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Chen,Xiaomeng & Mungai,Rose & Nakamura,Shohei & Pearson,Thomas Patrick & Wambile,Ayago Esmubancha & Yoshida,Nobuo, 2020. "How Useful is CPI Price Data for Spatial Price Adjustment in Poverty Measurement? : A Case from Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9388, The World Bank.
    5. 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.
    6. Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray, 2020. "National and subnational purchasing power parity: a review," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 47(2), pages 103-124, June.
    7. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    poverty; India; poor; poverty measures; price indices; rural; urban; Engel lines; cereals-calorie;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • F01 - International Economics - - General - - - Global Outlook
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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