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Another Mere Addition Paradox?: Some Reflections on Variable Population Poverty Measurement

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  • Nicole Hassoun

Abstract

Debates about poverty relief and foreign aid often hinge on claims about how many poor people there are in the world and what constitutes poverty. Good measures of poverty are essential for addressing the world poverty problem. Measures of poverty require a basis for determining who is poor and a method of aggregation. Historically, the methods of aggregation were quite simple. The headcount index (H), for instance, measures the number of poor people as a percentage of the total population.

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  • Nicole Hassoun, 2010. "Another Mere Addition Paradox?: Some Reflections on Variable Population Poverty Measurement," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-120, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2010-120
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    1. Hassoun, Nicole & Subramanian, S., 2012. "An aspect of variable population poverty comparisons," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 238-241.
    2. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-53 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Subramanian, Subbu, 2012. "The focus axiom and poverty: On the co-existence of precise language and ambiguous meaning in economic measurement," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-21.
    4. Subramanian, Sreenivasan, 2012. "Variable Populations and the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," WIDER Working Paper Series 053, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2012. "Variable Populations and the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-053, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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