Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty?
Frequent measurement of poverty is challenging, as measurement often relies on complex and expensive expenditure surveys that try to measure expenditures on a comprehensive consumption aggregate. This paper investigates the use of consumption "sub-aggregates" instead. The use of consumption sub-aggregates is theoretically justified if and only if all the Engel curves are linear for any realization of prices. This is very stringent. However, it may be possible to empirically identify certain goods that happen to have linear Engel curves given prevailing prices, and when the effect of price changes is small, such a sub-aggregate might work in practice. The paper constructs such linear sub-aggregates using data from Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The findings show that using sub-aggregates is ill-advised in practice as well as in theory. This raises questions about the consistency of the poverty-tracking efforts currently applied across countries, since obtaining exhaustive consumption measures remains an unmet challenge.
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Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020-07
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Subjects: | CONSUMPTION, POVERTY MEASUREMENT, ENGEL CURVE, CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE, |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/931591593607254270/Should-Consumption-Sub-Aggregates-Be-Used-to-Measure-Poverty https://hdl.handle.net/10986/34027 |
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dig-okr-10986340272024-08-09T06:19:21Z Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? Ligon, Ethan Christiaensen, Luc Pave Sohnesen, Thomas CONSUMPTION POVERTY MEASUREMENT ENGEL CURVE CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE Frequent measurement of poverty is challenging, as measurement often relies on complex and expensive expenditure surveys that try to measure expenditures on a comprehensive consumption aggregate. This paper investigates the use of consumption "sub-aggregates" instead. The use of consumption sub-aggregates is theoretically justified if and only if all the Engel curves are linear for any realization of prices. This is very stringent. However, it may be possible to empirically identify certain goods that happen to have linear Engel curves given prevailing prices, and when the effect of price changes is small, such a sub-aggregate might work in practice. The paper constructs such linear sub-aggregates using data from Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The findings show that using sub-aggregates is ill-advised in practice as well as in theory. This raises questions about the consistency of the poverty-tracking efforts currently applied across countries, since obtaining exhaustive consumption measures remains an unmet challenge. 2020-07-06T18:44:30Z 2020-07-06T18:44:30Z 2020-07 Working Paper Document de travail Documento de trabajo http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/931591593607254270/Should-Consumption-Sub-Aggregates-Be-Used-to-Measure-Poverty https://hdl.handle.net/10986/34027 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9312 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank application/pdf World Bank, Washington, DC |
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CONSUMPTION POVERTY MEASUREMENT ENGEL CURVE CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE CONSUMPTION POVERTY MEASUREMENT ENGEL CURVE CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE |
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CONSUMPTION POVERTY MEASUREMENT ENGEL CURVE CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE CONSUMPTION POVERTY MEASUREMENT ENGEL CURVE CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE Ligon, Ethan Christiaensen, Luc Pave Sohnesen, Thomas Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? |
description |
Frequent measurement of poverty is
challenging, as measurement often relies on complex and
expensive expenditure surveys that try to measure
expenditures on a comprehensive consumption aggregate. This
paper investigates the use of consumption
"sub-aggregates" instead. The use of consumption
sub-aggregates is theoretically justified if and only if all
the Engel curves are linear for any realization of prices.
This is very stringent. However, it may be possible to
empirically identify certain goods that happen to have
linear Engel curves given prevailing prices, and when the
effect of price changes is small, such a sub-aggregate might
work in practice. The paper constructs such linear
sub-aggregates using data from Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The findings show that using sub-aggregates is ill-advised
in practice as well as in theory. This raises questions
about the consistency of the poverty-tracking efforts
currently applied across countries, since obtaining
exhaustive consumption measures remains an unmet challenge. |
format |
Working Paper |
topic_facet |
CONSUMPTION POVERTY MEASUREMENT ENGEL CURVE CONSUMPTION SUB-AGGREGATE |
author |
Ligon, Ethan Christiaensen, Luc Pave Sohnesen, Thomas |
author_facet |
Ligon, Ethan Christiaensen, Luc Pave Sohnesen, Thomas |
author_sort |
Ligon, Ethan |
title |
Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? |
title_short |
Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? |
title_full |
Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? |
title_fullStr |
Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Should Consumption Sub-Aggregates Be Used to Measure Poverty? |
title_sort |
should consumption sub-aggregates be used to measure poverty? |
publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
publishDate |
2020-07 |
url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/931591593607254270/Should-Consumption-Sub-Aggregates-Be-Used-to-Measure-Poverty https://hdl.handle.net/10986/34027 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT ligonethan shouldconsumptionsubaggregatesbeusedtomeasurepoverty AT christiaensenluc shouldconsumptionsubaggregatesbeusedtomeasurepoverty AT pavesohnesenthomas shouldconsumptionsubaggregatesbeusedtomeasurepoverty |
_version_ |
1807156717072416768 |