Comment on 'Counting the World's Poor' by Angus Deaton

Deaton s analysis of the problems with poverty counts and suggestions for improvement, including issues needing further research, are based on two distinct stages in counting the poor. At the first or international stage, a world poverty line is set and used to derive comparable poverty lines for each country. At the second or domestic stage, the poverty lines are used to count the number of poor people in each country, and the others are added up over countries. He finds disquieting evidence about both stages of counting. The data for poverty counts in the second stage come from household surveys, whereas data on aggregate economic growth are from National Accounts Statistics (NAS). Deaton finds that in many countries there are large and growing disparities between survey data and national accounts so that there is no consistent empirical basis for conclusions about the extent to which growth reduces poverty. It is scandalous that even after nearly half a century of pursuing national and international programs for the eradication of mass poverty, the empirical foundations for assessing the success or failure of the programs and drawing lessons from them are so weak as to be deemed nonexistent. Abandoning them and focusing on national and subnational poverty analysis that goes beyond headcounts will be the sensible course to follow. The author focuses only on consumption-based poverty lines. The reason is the challenge of defining household income in a theoretically satisfactory manner and collecting data on income based on that definition through household surveys in any country (developed or developing). Deaton (1989) discusses the difficulties in meeting the challenge. Poverty counts based on income-based poverty lines are even more problematic than consumption-based ones.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Srinivasan, T.N.
Format:	Journal Article biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2001-10
Subjects:	AGRICULTURAL LABORERS, AGRICULTURAL WORKERS, COMPETITIVE MARKETS, CONSUMER EXPENDITURE, CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, CONSUMER PRICE INDEXES, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES, CONSUMPTION POVERTY, CONVERSIONS, CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION, DETERMINANTS OF POVERTY, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY, DURABLES, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMICS, ESTIMATES OF POVERTY, EXCHANGE RATE, EXCHANGE RATES, FOOD CONSUMPTION, GLOBAL POVERTY, GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, HEADCOUNT RATIO, HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT, HUMAN POVERTY, HUMAN POVERTY INDEX, INCIDENCE OF POVERTY, INDICATORS OF POVERTY, INFLATION, INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES, INTERNATIONAL BANK, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, INTERNATIONAL POVERTY LINE, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, LABOR MARKETS, LEGAL SYSTEMS, LOCAL CURRENCY, LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES, MARKET PRICE, MEAN EXPENDITURE, NATIONAL ACCOUNTS, NATIONAL POVERTY, NATIONAL POVERTY LINE, NATIONAL POVERTY LINES, NUTRITION, POLICY IMPLICATIONS, POOR, POOR COUNTRIES, POOR HOUSEHOLDS, POOR PEOPLE, POPULOUS COUNTRIES, POVERTY ALLEVIATION, POVERTY ANALYSIS, POVERTY ESTIMATES, POVERTY INDICATOR, POVERTY INDICATORS, POVERTY LINE, POVERTY LINES, POVERTY MEASURE, POVERTY OUTCOMES, POVERTY REDUCTION, PRICE CHANGE, PRICE CHANGES, PUBLIC SECTOR, PURCHASING POWER, REDUCTION IN POVERTY, REDUCTION OF POVERTY, REGIONAL POVERTY, REGIONAL POVERTY LINES, RETURN, RURAL, RURAL POOR, RURAL POVERTY, RURAL POVERTY LINE, STOCKS, TRANSACTION, URBAN AREAS, VALUATION,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/17580166/comment-counting-worlds-poor-angus-deaton http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17132
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