Estimating Utility-Consistent Poverty Lines

Channing Arndt and Kenneth Simler

No 59591, FCND Discussion Papers from CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Food; Security; and; Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2005-03
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Related works:
Working Paper: Estimating utility-consistent poverty lines (2005)
Working Paper: Estimating utility-consistent poverty lines (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:fcnddp:59591

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.59591

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