Estimating utility-consistent poverty lines

The “Cost of Basic Needs” (CBN) approach to drawing consumption-based poverty lines is widely applied and lays credible claim to being the best practice for estimating poverty measures. Unfortunately, a growing mass of evidence indicates that poverty estimates obtained under the CBN approach are oft...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Arndt, Channing, Simler, Kenneth R.
Format: Brief
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2005
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160617
Description
Summary:The “Cost of Basic Needs” (CBN) approach to drawing consumption-based poverty lines is widely applied and lays credible claim to being the best practice for estimating poverty measures. Unfortunately, a growing mass of evidence indicates that poverty estimates obtained under the CBN approach are often demonstrably utility inconsistent. Here, we introduce an information theoretic approach for estimating utility-consistent poverty lines. An example of the approach is provided for the case of Mozambique. The approach represents a powerful addition to the poverty analyst’s tool kit and enhances the attractiveness of the CBN approach for practical poverty measurement problems.