 Counting Heads or Counting Televisions: Can Asset-based Measures of Welfare Assist Policy-makers in Russia?Martin Wall () and Deborah Johnston Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 2008, vol. 9, issue 1, 131-147 Abstract: There has been a vigorous debate about poverty measurement in Russia, where both the poverty line and poverty data have been subject to criticism. We outline some of the issues raised and discuss the use of an alternative welfare measure based on household assets. Asset indices have mostly been constructed for low-income countries, supported by two arguments: first, the asset index appears to have a number of empirical advantages in terms of data collection; and second, it may be better at capturing long-term welfare than either income or expenditure data. We show that the asset index approach is useful in Russia, and may present policy-makers with a superior means of determining household welfare. However, our discussion raises a number of methodological issues that must be confronted by those constructing asset indices. Keywords: Asset index; Poverty; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:131-147 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/14649880701811468 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Human Development and Capabilities is currently edited by Kathryn Rosenblum More articles in Journal of Human Development and Capabilities from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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