Why not consider that being absolutely poor is worse than being only relatively poor?

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Public Economics
Year: 2017
Volume: 152
Issue: C
Pages: 79-92

Score contribution per author:

4.036 = (α=2.02 / 1 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

No current strategy to measure income poverty is able to (i) account for both its absolute and relative aspects and (ii) always consider that an individual who is absolutely poor is poorer than another individual who is only relatively poor. I propose a measure of income poverty satisfying (i) and (ii). Unlike alternative proposals satisfying (i), a decrease in a poor individual's income never reduces this measure. An application illustrates that the measure yields intuitive judgments about unequal growth experiences, for which all absolute (resp. relative) poverty measures systematically conclude that poverty has decreased (resp. increased).

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:pubeco:v:152:y:2017:i:c:p:79-92
Journal Field
Public
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-25