Comparing Cross-Survey Micro Imputation and Macro Projection Techniques: Poverty in Post Revolution Tunisia

Jose Cuesta and Gabriel Lara Ibarra

Journal of Income Distribution, 2017, vol. 25, issue 1, 1-30

Abstract: Tunisia was showcased for a long time as an example of poverty reduction achievement and pro-poor growth. Yet, after halving its poverty rates a revolution took the world by surprise early in 2011 and since then nothing is known about its poverty levels. To fill that gap, this analysis develops and compares multiple cross-survey micro imputations (using household budgetary and labor force surveys) with macro poverty projections (based on sector GDP, unemployment and inflation). Results from both techniques are robust: poverty in post revolution Tunisia first increased in 2011 to then decrease in 2012. The magnitude of this swing oscillates between 1 and 2.3 percent points and accrues mostly from urban areas. Methods using readily available macro administrative data provide estimates of poverty levels and trends very close to those provided by analytically more sophisticated and data demanding micro imputation techniques. These findings for Tunisia provide relevant insights in data deprived contexts with serious deficiencies in the frequency and accessibility of welfare statistics.

Keywords: Poverty; cross-survey imputation; macro projections; Tunisia; residuals–based imputation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C53 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.glendon.yorku.ca/repec/uploads/repec/jid/articles/36210.pdf (application/pdf)
Some fulltext downloads are only available to subscribers. See JID website for details.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jid:journl:y:2017:v:25:i:1:p:1-30

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Income Distribution from Ad libros publications inc. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Timm Boenke ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).