Measuring poverty with the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke indexes based on the Gamma distribution

Fernández-Morales, Antonio (2016): Measuring poverty with the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke indexes based on the Gamma distribution.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is the estimation of the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke family of poverty indexes using the Gamma distribution as a continuous representation of the distribution of incomes. The expressions of this family of poverty indexes associated with the Gamma probability model and their asymptotic distributions are derived in the text, both for an exogenous and a relative (to the mean) poverty line. Finally, a Monte Carlo experiment is performed to compare three different methods of estimation for grouped data.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Poverty indexes; Income distribution; Gamma distribution
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C1 - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General > C13 - Estimation: General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C4 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics > C46 - Specific Distributions ; Specific Statistics; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I32 - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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