The Developing World is Poorer Than We Thought, but No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty

The Developing World is Poorer Than We Thought, but No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty

The paper presents a major overhaul to the World Bank's past estimates of global poverty, incorporating new and better data. Extreme poverty-as judged by what "poverty" means in the world's poorest countries-is found to be more...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Chen, Shaohua, Ravallion, Martin
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2012
Subjects:	ABSOLUTE POVERTY ABSOLUTE POVERTY LINE AGGREGATE POVERTY CHILD MORTALITY CONSUMER PRICE INDEX CONSUMPTION DATA CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES CONSUMPTION GROWTH COUNTRY LEVEL COUNTRY SPECIFIC CUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION DATA AVAILABILITY DATA ISSUES DATA SETS DECLINE IN POVERTY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS DEVELOPMENT REPORT DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION ECONOMIC CONTRACTION ECONOMIC GROWTH EMPIRICAL RESULTS ESTIMATES OF POVERTY EXCHANGE RATE EXCHANGE RATES EXTREME POVERTY FINANCIAL CRISIS FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES FOOD BUNDLE FOOD POVERTY FOOD POVERTY LINE FOOD PRICES FOOD STAPLES GLOBAL POVERTY GROWTH RATE GROWTH RATES HEALTH CARE HIGH INFLATION HIGHER INEQUALITY HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSING INCIDENCE OF POVERTY INCOME INCOME SHOCKS INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY MEASURES INFLATION RATE INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES INTERNATIONAL POVERTY LINE INTERNATIONAL POVERTY LINES LIVING STANDARDS LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES MEASURING POVERTY MEAT MICRO DATA NATIONAL ACCOUNTS NATIONAL POVERTY NATIONAL POVERTY LINES PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA EXPENDITURE POLICY RESEARCH POOR POOR COUNTRIES POOR PEOPLE POORER REGIONS POPULATION SHARE POVERTY ASSESSMENTS POVERTY COMPARISONS POVERTY GAP POVERTY GAP INDEX POVERTY INCIDENCE POVERTY LINE POVERTY MEASURE POVERTY MEASUREMENT POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY PROFILE POVERTY RANKINGS POVERTY RATE POVERTY RATES POVERTY REDUCTION POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPERS PUBLIC SECTOR QUALITATIVE COMPARISONS REAL INCOMES REGIONAL AUTHORITIES REGIONAL AVERAGE REGIONAL DIFFERENCES REGIONAL LEVEL REGIONAL POVERTY REGIONAL PROFILE RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL POVERTY RURAL POVERTY LINE RURAL POVERTY LINES SAVINGS SECTOR ACTIVITIES SHARP FALL TRANSITION ECONOMIES WELFARE INDICATOR
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/08/11680409/developing-world-poorer-thought-no-less-successful-fight-against-poverty http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6322

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Summary:	The paper presents a major overhaul to the World Bank's past estimates of global poverty, incorporating new and better data. Extreme poverty-as judged by what "poverty" means in the world's poorest countries-is found to be more pervasive than we thought. Yet the data also provide robust evidence of continually declining poverty incidence and depth since the early 1980s. For 2005 we estimate that 1.4 billion people, or one quarter of the population of the developing world, lived below our international line of $1.25 a day in 2005 prices; 25 years earlier there were 1.9 billion poor, or one half of the population. Progress was uneven across regions. The poverty rate in East Asia fell from almost 80 percent to under 20 percent over this period. By contrast it stayed at around 50 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, though with signs of progress since the mid 1990s. Because of lags in survey data availability, these estimates do not yet reflect the sharp rise in food prices since 2005.

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