There are alternative definitions of vulnerability to poverty. Most researchers prefer to define vulnerability as the probability of a household or individual falling into poverty in the future. Based on this definition and using household survey panel data from rural China, this paper attempt to assess the extent to which we can measure vulnerability to poverty. The assessment is based on comp...

This paper provides a new estimation of an international poverty line based on a Bayesian approach. We found that the official poverty lines of the poorest countries are related to the countries’ mean consumption level. This new philosophy is to be compared to the previous assumptions made by the World Bank in favour of an absolute poverty line. We propose a new international poverty line at $1...

T first of the Millennium Development Goals targets global poverty.1 The global poverty number is estimated by the World Bank as a worldwide count of people who live below a common international poverty line. This line, loosely referred to as the dollar-a-day line, is calculated as an average over the world’s poorest countries of their national poverty lines expressed in international dollars; ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effects of a government insurance program covering tertiary care for people below the poverty line in Karnataka, India, on out-of-pocket expenditures, hospital use, and mortality. DESIGN Geographic regression discontinuity study. SETTING 572 villages in Karnataka, India. PARTICIPANTS 31,476 households (22,796 below poverty line and 8680 above poverty line) in 30...

It is common to argue that poverty is a multidimensional issue. Yet few studies have included the various dimensions of deprivation to yield a broader and fuller picture of poverty. The present paper considers the multidimensional aspects of deprivation by specifying a poverty line for each aspect and combines their associated one-dimensional poverty-gaps into multidimensional poverty measures....

This paper explores the implications of using two methodological approaches to study poverty dynamics in rural Bangladesh. Using data from a unique longitudinal study, we show how different methods lead to very different assessments of socio-economic mobility. We suggest five ways of reconciling these differences: considering assets in addition to expenditures, proximity to the poverty line, ot...

Consider a population that consists of only two households. The ®rst household has a total household income of 500 and is composed of three people: 2 adults and a child. Let, for simplicity, the equivalence scale be such that each adult counts for 1, and each child for 0.5. That the household’s income per consumption unit is 200 (500 divided by 2.5 equivalent units). The second household has a ...

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the United States in the definition and measurement of poverty. In early 1992, the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences began a 30-month study requested by Congress that includes an examination of statistical issues involved in measuring and understanding poverty. Some 2 years earlier, in January 1990, the Admini...

Poverty reduction, as an overarching objective of development, has recently been adopted as an international development goal (IDG). Using the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day per person as the measure of poverty, the international community identified the reduction of poverty by half by the year 2015 as an international development goal. The one-dollar a day per person...