Search results for "poverty line"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
The paradox of endogenous poverty line in the poverty indices
2007
february 23-25, 2007; When measuring poverty, the poverty line is considered to be relatively determined as a percentage of the median income or as a percentage of the average income so as to allow international comparisons. The poverty line relative to the median income may be described as endogenous in contrast with the poverty line relative to the average income which may be described as exogenous because it is independent of the normalized distribution of incomes. As the existing literature is focused on the properties of the indices but not on the respective interest of the endogenous and exogenous poverty lines, this paper compares the two definitions of the relative poverty. The Rela…
Poverty Reduction: The Paradox of the Endogenous Poverty Line
2007
When evaluating poverty, the relative poverty line may be considered as a percentage of the median income or it may be a percentage of the average income. It is proved that, with a poverty line relative to the median income, reducing poverty may become less costly in proportion to the total income as poverty increases (measured by the Sen, the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon or the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty indexes) by passing from a Lorenz concentration curve to another curve associated with more poverty. This is obviously a paradox, although a largely overlooked one. However, it is shown that the paradox vanishes if the poverty line is relative to the average income. The demonstration is both exp…
After the Millennium Development Goals. Remarks on the ethical assessment of global poverty reduction success
2018
The Millennium Development Goals were effective from 2000 to 2015. Statistics show that most of the goals were met, and particularly success in the goal of reducing extreme poverty (MDG1) gained wide recognition. Despite the strong ethical language related to poverty reduction, there has been little analysis of the ethical significance of the MDG achievements. Since statistical and ethical definitions and representations of poverty never completely overlap, conclusions concerning ethical progress are not directly available from the statistics. This article shows how this ethical significance can be analysed and what kinds of controversies and uncertainties relate to the issue. As part of th…