Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries

Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries PDF

Author: Channing Arndt

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 0198744803

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Detailed analyses of poverty and wellbeing in developing countries, based on household surveys, have been ongoing for more than three decades. The large majority of developing countries now regularly conduct a variety of household surveys, and the information base in developing countries with respect to poverty and wellbeing has improved dramatically. Nevertheless, appropriate measurement of poverty remains complex and controversial. This is particularly true in developing countries where (i) the stakes with respect to poverty reduction are high; (ii) the determinants of living standards are often volatile; and (iii) related information bases, while much improved, are often characterized by significant non-sample error. It also remains, to a surprisingly high degree, an activity undertaken by technical assistance personnel and consultants based in developed countries. This book seeks to enhance the transparency, replicability, and comparability of existing practice. In so doing, it also aims to significantly lower the barriers to entry to the conduct of rigorous poverty measurement and increase the participation of analysts from developing countries in their own poverty assessments. The book focuses on two domains: the measurement of absolute consumption poverty and a first order dominance approach to multidimensional welfare analysis. In each domain, it provides a series of flexible computer codes designed to facilitate analysis by allowing the analyst to start from a flexible and known base. The book volume covers the theoretical grounding for the code streams provided, a chapter on 'estimation in practice', a series of 11 case studies where the code streams are operationalized, as well as a synthesis, an extension to inequality, and a look forward.

Measuring Poverty Around the World

Measuring Poverty Around the World PDF

Author: Anthony B. Atkinson

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 0691191220

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The final book from a towering pioneer in the study of poverty and inequality—a critically important examination of poverty around the world In this, his final book, economist Anthony Atkinson, one of the world’s great social scientists and a pioneer in the study of poverty and inequality, offers an inspiring analysis of a central question: What is poverty and how much of it is there around the globe? The persistence of poverty—in rich and poor countries alike—is one of the most serious problems facing humanity. Better measurement of poverty is essential for raising awareness, motivating action, designing good policy, gauging progress, and holding political leaders accountable for meeting targets. To help make this possible, Atkinson provides a critically important examination of how poverty is—and should be—measured. Bringing together evidence about the nature and extent of poverty across the world and including case studies of sixty countries, Atkinson addresses both financial poverty and other indicators of deprivation. He starts from first principles about the meaning of poverty, translates these into concrete measures, and analyzes the data to which the measures can be applied. Crucially, he integrates international organizations’ measurements of poverty with countries’ own national analyses. Atkinson died before he was able to complete the book, but at his request it was edited for publication by two of his colleagues, John Micklewright and Andrea Brandolini. In addition, François Bourguignon and Nicholas Stern provide afterwords that address key issues from the unfinished chapters: how poverty relates to growth, inequality, and climate change. The result is an essential contribution to efforts to alleviate poverty around the world.

Wellbeing in Developing Countries

Wellbeing in Developing Countries PDF

Author: Ian Gough

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-05-31

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1139464078

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In a world where many experience unprecedented levels of wellbeing, chronic poverty remains a major concern for many developing countries and the international community. Conventional frameworks for understanding development and poverty have focused on money, commodities and economic growth. This 2007 book challenges these conventional approaches and contributes to a new paradigm for development centred on human wellbeing. Poor people are not defined solely by their poverty and a wellbeing approach provides a better means of understanding how people become and stay poor. It examines three perspectives: ideas of human functioning, capabilities and needs; the analysis of livelihoods and resource use; and research on subjective wellbeing and happiness. A range of international experts from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, political science and development evaluate the state-of-the-art in understanding wellbeing from these perspectives. This book establishes a new strategy and methodology for researching wellbeing that can influence policy.

Global child poverty and well-being

Global child poverty and well-being PDF

Author: Minujin, Alberto

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2013-01-28

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 1447312767

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Child poverty is a central and present part of global life, with hundreds of millions of children around the world enduring tremendous suffering and deprivation of their most basic needs. Despite its long history, research on poverty and development has only relatively recently examined the issue of child poverty as a distinct topic of concern. This book brings together theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant contributions by leading researchers on international child poverty. With a preface from Sir Richard Jolly, Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, it examines how child poverty and well-being are now conceptualized, defined and measured, and presents regional and national level portraits of child poverty around the world, in rich, middle income and poor countries. The book's ultimate objective is to promote and influence policy, action and the research agenda to address one of the world's great ongoing tragedies: child poverty, marginalization and inequality.

The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty

The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty PDF

Author: David Brady

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 937

ISBN-13: 0199914052

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The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty builds a common scholarly ground in the study of poverty by bringing together an international, inter-disciplinary group of scholars to provide their perspectives on the issue. Contributors engage in discussions about the leading theories and conceptual debates regarding poverty, the most salient topics in poverty research, and the far-reaching consequences of poverty on the individual and societal level.

Understanding Poverty

Understanding Poverty PDF

Author: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-04-20

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 0198041535

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Understanding poverty and what to do about it, is perhaps the central concern of all of economics. Yet the lay public almost never gets to hear what leading professional economists have to say about it. This volume brings together twenty-eight essays by some of the world leaders in the field, who were invited to tell the lay reader about the most important things they have learnt from their research that relate to poverty. The essays cover a wide array of topics: the first essay is about how poverty gets measured. The next section is about the causes of poverty and its persistence, and the ideas range from the impact of colonialism and globalization to the problems of "excessive" population growth, corruption and ethnic conflict. The next section is about policy: how should we fight poverty? The essays discuss how to get drug companies to produce more vaccines for the diseases of the poor, what we should and should not expect from micro-credit, what we should do about child labor, how to design welfare policies that work better and a host of other topics. The final section is about where the puzzles lie: what are the most important anomalies, the big gaps in the way economists think about poverty? The essays talk about the puzzling reluctance of Kenyan farmers to fertilizers, the enduring power of social relationships in economic transactions in developing countries and the need to understand where aspirations come from, and much else. Every essay is written with the aim of presenting the latest and the most sophisticated in economics without any recourse to jargon or technical language.

Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation

Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation PDF

Author: Jacques Silber

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2023-03-02

Total Pages: 777

ISBN-13: 1800883455

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Encompassing chapters that address both unidimensional and multidimensional poverty, this timely Research Handbook explores all aspects of poverty and deprivation measurement, not only detailing broad issues but also scrutinising specific domains and aspects of poverty, such as health, energy and housing. Its succinct and highly focussed chapters, written by a diverse range of authors, employ a combination of theoretical and empirical methodologies to offer well-rounded explorations of complex topics.

Handbook on Poverty + Inequality

Handbook on Poverty + Inequality PDF

Author: Jonathan Haughton

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2009-03-27

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0821376144

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For anyone wanting to learn, in practical terms, how to measure, describe, monitor, evaluate, and analyze poverty, this Handbook is the place to start. It is designed to be accessible to people with a university-level background in science or the social sciences. It is an invaluable tool for policy analysts, researchers, college students, and government officials working on policy issues related to poverty and inequality.

Measurement of Trends in Wellbeing, Poverty, and Inequality with Case Studies from Bolivia and Colombia

Measurement of Trends in Wellbeing, Poverty, and Inequality with Case Studies from Bolivia and Colombia PDF

Author: Melanie Grosse

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13:

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Reducing poverty and increasing wellbeing in developing countries have become central aims of both the national policy-makers as well as the international community. With the Millennium Development Declaration of 2000, the international community has agreed to focus on poverty reduction and the reduction of deprivation in its many dimensions. This book investigates conceptual and empirical issues on the measurement of trends in wellbeing, poverty, and inequality, illustrated for Bolivia and Colombia. The book contributes significantly to filling data gaps by combining existing data in a new way. Furthermore, it presents an important step forward to focus more on multidimensional outcomes of wellbeing rather than on monetary inputs and to develop tools to monitor the progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Defining Poverty in the Developing World

Defining Poverty in the Developing World PDF

Author: Frances Stewart

Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan

Published: 2007-06-28

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

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Despite increasing acceptance that poverty is multidimensional, most policy work adopts a monetary definition. Using data for India and Peru, the authors compare four different approaches to poverty analysis at a theoretical and empirical level. Defining Poverty in the Developing World compares and contrasts monetary, capabilities, social exclusion and participatory approaches in a highly informative manner. The research elucidates the implications for measuring poverty and for policy, concluding that the approach chosen does make a marked difference to conclusions drawn.