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Poverty Measurement and Theories of Beneficence

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  • Sreenivasan Subramanian

Abstract

This note points to certain similarities of orientation and outcome between Derek Parfit's quest for a theory of beneficence and Amartya Sen's quest for a suitable real-valued representation of poverty. It suggests that both projects, in a certain sense, have been instructive failures. Using Sen's own work, the note also suggests a logically natural way of dealing with some of the problems in poverty measurement reviewed in it—but only to reject this way out on other compelling grounds.

Suggested Citation

  • Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2005. "Poverty Measurement and Theories of Beneficence," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-62, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2005-62
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    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/rp2005-62.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    2. Sen, Amartya, 1983. "Poor, Relatively Speaking," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 153-169, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kuan Xu & Zhengxi Lin, 2007. "Participation in Employer-sponsored Training in Canada: Role of Firm Characteristics and Worker Attributes," Working Papers daleconwp2007-02, Dalhousie University, Department of Economics.
    2. Lars Osberg & Kuan Xu, 2008. "How Should We Measure Poverty in a Changing World? Methodological Issues and Chinese Case Study," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 419-441, May.

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