A Meta-Theory for Absolute Poverty Lines

Absolute poverty lines aim to track a fixed poverty standard consistently. There are two main approaches for the construction of absolute poverty lines. The "welfaristic" approach tracks a fixed level of utility, and the "objective" approach tracks a fixed list of achievements. A...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Decerf, Benoit
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
Description
Summary:Absolute poverty lines aim to track a fixed poverty standard consistently. There are two main approaches for the construction of absolute poverty lines. The "welfaristic" approach tracks a fixed level of utility, and the "objective" approach tracks a fixed list of achievements. As they yield different poverty comparisons, longstanding debates between their respective proponents take place both at global and national levels. However, these debates only provide informal arguments about their respective theoretical validity. This paper proposes a meta-theory for the consistency properties of absolute poverty lines under heterogeneous prices and heterogeneous preferences. The results identify the sets of consistency properties that fully characterize the poverty lines underpinned by these approaches. Which approach has better consistency properties depends on two aspects of the application for which poverty is monitored
Physical Description:65 pages