White - the measurement of poverty
18 July 2006
23:19
· Relative or absolute measure of poverty?
· $1⁄day based on absolute model
· 1⁄3 average a popular relative model, but gives you 50% poverty in Latin America
· Conventional household survey main measure
? One week's shopping gives different results to one month's shopping
? Don't get inequality between households, partic gender gap
· Poverty lines mask range below - those lifted out of poverty tend to be those already close to the line
· Death & education rates are much better measures, but figures scarce
· Harder to measure are vulnerability and access to power
· There's also variation within countries, eg rural, urban
· Or poor⁄rich - poor africans less schooling than rich
· Combinations matter in way that's hard to measure - eg it's especially bad to be uneducated and from poor area
· Shallow and deep - how to measure vulnerability to poverty
? Chronic poverty may have increased in 90's
· Human Development Index = mixture of
? GDP per capita
? Life expectancy
? Average literacy and schooling
· Masks all kinds of variations within countries, eg lots of middle class go to uni, your HDI raises
· Human Poverty Index - similar but more poverty-focussed
· Income - poverty line is basically can you buy a basket of food.
· There are no stats on poor women and children, just on poor households.
· Purchasing Power Parity - diff to market exchange rates, as price levels not always available
· Can count things like own-grown food, wild food
