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Comment on “Counting the World's Poor,” by Angus Deaton

Comment on “Counting the World's Poor,” by Angus Deaton Comment on “Counting the World’s Poor,” by Angus Deaton T. N. Srinivasan In his very instructive article, Angus Deaton argues that for international institutions (for example, the World Bank) and the national governments of most poor countries (for example, India), reduction of poverty is or is professed to be the paramount objec- tive of policy. As such, they require some overall yardstick of progress (or lack thereof). According to Deaton, there is a long history of studies of poverty mobilizing support among the nonpoor for antipoverty values. So it is important to know whether the world and national poverty counts are sound enough to support their uses. Deaton’s analysis of the problems with poverty counts and suggestions for improve- ment, including issues needing further research, are based on two distinct stages in counting the poor (see also Deaton 2000). At the first or international stage, a world poverty line is set and used to derive comparable poverty lines for each country. At the second or domestic stage, the poverty lines are used to count the number of poor people in each country, and the others are added up over countries. He finds dis- quieting evidence about both stages of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The World Bank Research Observer Oxford University Press

Comment on “Counting the World's Poor,” by Angus Deaton

Srinivasan, T. N.
The World Bank Research Observer , Volume 16 (2) – Sep 1, 2001
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References (3)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
Copyright Oxford University Press 2001
ISSN
0257-3032
eISSN
1564-6971
DOI
10.1093/wbro/16.2.157
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Comment on “Counting the World’s Poor,” by Angus Deaton T. N. Srinivasan In his very instructive article, Angus Deaton argues that for international institutions (for example, the World Bank) and the national governments of most poor countries (for example, India), reduction of poverty is or is professed to be the paramount objec- tive of policy. As such, they require some overall yardstick of progress (or lack thereof). According to Deaton, there is a long history of studies of poverty mobilizing support among the nonpoor for antipoverty values. So it is important to know whether the world and national poverty counts are sound enough to support their uses. Deaton’s analysis of the problems with poverty counts and suggestions for improve- ment, including issues needing further research, are based on two distinct stages in counting the poor (see also Deaton 2000). At the first or international stage, a world poverty line is set and used to derive comparable poverty lines for each country. At the second or domestic stage, the poverty lines are used to count the number of poor people in each country, and the others are added up over countries. He finds dis- quieting evidence about both stages of

Journal

The World Bank Research Observer – Oxford University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2001

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