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 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.
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. |
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