Impacts of Policies on Poverty. Basic Poverty Measures

Bellù, Lorenzo Giovanni and Liberati, Paolo (2005): Impacts of Policies on Poverty. Basic Poverty Measures. Published in: EASYPol : online resources for policy making www.fao.org/easypol (November 2005): pp. 1-13.

Abstract

This module describes two of the most commonly used poverty measures in applied policy works, i.e., the headcount ratio (HR) and the poverty gap (PG) ratio. These are basic poverty indicators used to investigate impacts of public policies on poverty. After providing a conceptual background to HR and PG, this module describes step-by-step procedures and provides numerical examples to calculate these measures. In addition, advantages and shortcomings of these measures are discussed, and their explanatory power is investigated.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: policy impact analysis poverty measures applied policy poverty gap ratio poverty indicators public policies headcount ratio aggregation problem Lorenz curves Generalised lorenz curves axiomatic measures
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E6 - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook > E64 - Incomes Policy ; Price Policy; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I32 - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

References

FAO EASYPol: online resources for policy making www.fao.org/easypol