Reference groups and the poverty line: An axiomatic approach with an empirical illustration

Satya Chakravarty, Nachiketa Chattopadhyay, Zoya Nissanov and Jacques Silber

No wp-2015-002, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: A recent trend in the study of poverty is to consider a relative poverty line, one that is responsive to the nature of the income distribution. We develop an axiomatic approach to the determination of an amalgam poverty line. Given a reference income (e.g. the mean or the median), the amalgam poverty line becomes a weighted average of the absolute poverty line and the reference income, where the weights depend on the policy maker's preferences for aggregating the two components.

Keywords: Econometric models (Economic development); Income distribution; Poverty measurement; Methodology (Poverty) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Chapter: Reference Groups and the Poverty Line: An Axiomatic Approach with an Empirical Illustration (2019)
Chapter: Reference Groups and the Poverty Line: An Axiomatic Approach with an Empirical Illustration (2016)
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