An aspect of variable population poverty comparisons

Nicole Hassoun () and S. Subramanian

Journal of Development Economics, 2012, vol. 98, issue 2, 238-241

Abstract: This paper demonstrates that the property of Replication Invariance, generally considered to be an innocuous requirement for the extension of fixed-population poverty comparisons to variable-population contexts, is incompatible with other plausible variable- and fixed-population axioms. This fact raises questions about what constitutes an appropriate headcount assessment of poverty, in terms of whether one should focus on the proportion, or the absolute numbers, of the population in poverty. This observation, in turn, has important implications for tracking poverty and setting targets for its reduction or elimination.

Keywords: Variable populations; Fixed populations; Replication Invariance; Population Focus; Income focus; Impossibility result (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 D63 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:98:y:2012:i:2:p:238-241

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2011.07.004

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