A BEHAVIOUR-BASED APPROACH TO THE ESTIMATION OF POVERTY IN INDIA

Ingvild Almås, Anders Kjelsrud and Rohini Somanathan

No 226, Working papers from Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics

Abstract: Since the late 1970s, the price indices underlying the poverty lines in India have been updated using aggregate indices. Widespread criticism of these indices led to the adoption of a new official methodology in 2011 based on unit values from con- sumption survey data. We propose an alternative approach that identifies poverty from consumer behaviour, based on the notion that equally poor households spend the same proportion of their incomes on food. Compared with official estimates, we find higher levels of poverty in eastern India, and generally, smaller reductions in poverty from 2005 to 2010. Our poverty numbers are validated by the calorie composition of households around the poverty lines and self-reported hunger.

JEL-codes: D1 E31 F01 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2013-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: A Behavior‐Based Approach to the Estimation of Poverty in India (2019)
Working Paper: A Behaviour-based Approach to the Estimation of Poverty in India (2015)
Working Paper: A Behaviour-based Approach to the Estimation of Poverty in India (2013)
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