Comment on 'Counting the World's Poor' by Angus Deaton

This issue provides a usefully critical discussion of the current methods used by the World Bank for measuring poverty. The author will not address all the points raised by Deaton- avoiding those on which the author thinks there is broad agreement...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Ravallion, Martin
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2014
Subjects:	ABSOLUTE POVERTY AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION MEASURE COUNTRY LEVEL DATA SET DECREASING FUNCTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS DEVELOPMENT REPORT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH DISTRIBUTIONAL DATA ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC REVIEW EXCHANGE RATES GLOBAL POVERTY GROWTH PROCESS GROWTH RATES HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME INCOME COMPONENTS INEQUALITY INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS LIVING STANDARDS LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASUREMENT ERRORS MEASURING POVERTY MICRO DATA NATIONAL ACCOUNTS NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINES NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS POLICY RESEARCH POVERTY COMPARISONS POVERTY LINE POVERTY LINES POVERTY MEASURE POVERTY MEASUREMENT POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY MONITORING POVERTY MONITORING EFFORTS POVERTY REDUCTION POWER PARITY PRIVATE CONSUMPTION PRO-POOR PRO-POOR GROWTH REDUCED POVERTY REDUCING POVERTY REDUCTION IN POVERTY REGIONAL COMPOSITION RURAL POOR TRANSPARENCY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/17580176/comment-counting-world s-poor-angus-deaton http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17133

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Summary:	This issue provides a usefully critical discussion of the current methods used by the World Bank for measuring poverty. The author will not address all the points raised by Deaton- avoiding those on which the author thinks there is broad agreement that the World Bank s current methods can be improved. These include the way that (invariably troublesome) income surveys are handled, the scope for better use of subjective-qualitative welfare data, and the need to better acknowledge the limitations of welfare metrics based solely on consumption of market goods. This leaves two main issues that are very important for global poverty measurements- namely, how currency conversions are done and whether the poverty measures should be anchored to the national accounts. On both counts, Deaton makes recommendations for changing current methods. Before considering his recommendations, the author will briefly describe how the World Bank measures poverty.

Comment on 'Counting the World's Poor' by Angus Deaton

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