TIPs for the Analysis of Poverty in Mexico, 1992-2005 (original) (raw)

Poverty in Mexico: The effectos of adjusting survey data for under-reporting

1995

This paper estimates changes in poverty in Mexico between 1984 and 1989. Poverty is estimated using uncorrected data from the household surveys and estimation is repeated after the data is adjusted for under reporting using National Accounts totals as benchmarks. The paper illustrates the sensitivity of poverty estimates in Mexico both to the adjustment itself and the specific procedure used

Poverty in Mexico: The effects of Adjusting Survey Data for Under-reporting

Estudios Economicos, 1995

Resumen: Este trabajo estima los cambios en ios niveles de pobreza en México entre 1984 y 1989. La incidencia de la pobreza se estimó con base en la información de las encuestas de ingreso-gasto sin ajustar y ajusfando los datos por subdeclaración de ingresos y consumo. El trabajo ilustra la sensibilidad délas estimaciones sobre incidencia de la pobreza en México tanto al ajuste o corrección de la información como al procedimiento específico seguido para realizar dicho ajuste. Mientras no se disponga de mayor información sobre la distribución de la subdeclaración, no será posible obtener una estimación definitiva sobre el orden de magnitud de la pobreza y su incremento.

Estimation of poverty measures with auxiliary information in sample surveys

Quality & Quantity, 2011

The analysis of poverty measures has been receiving increased attention in recent years. This paper contributes to the literature by developing percentile ratio estimators based on the pseudo empirical likelihood method. In practice, variances of poverty measures could be not expressible by simple formulae and consequently other techniques should be used in the variance estimation stage. Assuming percentile ratios, resampling techniques are investigated in this paper. A numerical example based on data from the Spanish Household Panel Survey is taken up to illustrate how suggested procedures can perform better than existing ones. The effect of a model-misspecification on the proposed estimators is also evaluated by using simulated populations.

Some conceptual and statistical issues on measurement of poverty

Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, 1996

One of the major topics that attracted the attention of econometricians in recent years is measurement of poverty. This paper reviews critically the conceptual and statistical issues that have been examined by the econometricians. The paper provides a comprehensive review of major recent approaches and results on measurement of poverty. It devotes one section to outline a new approach to the measurement of poverty that is based on the actual consumption behaviour of the people instead of on arbitrary choice of either a poverty line or a deprivation function. It devotes two sections for suggesting fruitful areas of research, one addressed to economists on synthesizing poverty measurement with applied welfare economics, and another to statisticians on problems of statistical inference associated with functional estimation. The paper also highlights the importance of reliability theory and risk assessment in translating consumption deprivation into a poverty measure. A new index of poverty that depends on risk of consumption deprivation is also proposed.

Poverty Comparisons with Absolute Poverty Lines Estimated from Survey Data

Review of Income and Wealth, 2007

The objective of measuring poverty is usually to make comparisons over time or between two or more groups. Common statistical inference methods are used to determine whether an apparent difference in measured poverty is statistically significant. Studies of relative poverty have long recognized that when the poverty line is calculated from sample survey data, both the variance of the poverty line and the variance of the welfare metric contribute to the variance of the poverty estimate. In contrast, studies using absolute poverty lines have ignored the poverty line variance, even when the poverty lines are estimated from sample survey data. Including the poverty line variance could either reduce or increase the precision of poverty estimates, depending on the specific characteristics of the data. This paper presents a general procedure for estimating the standard error of poverty measures when the poverty line is estimated from survey data. Based on bootstrap methods, the approach can be used for a wide range of poverty measures and methods for estimating poverty lines. The method is applied to recent household survey data from Mozambique. When the sampling variance of the poverty line is taken into account, the estimated standard errors of Foster-Greer-Thorbecke and Watts poverty measures increase by 15 to 30 percent at the national level, with considerable variability at lower levels of aggregation.

Measuring Poverty: the Methodological Debate

Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 2013

The focus of the international community on poverty reduction has been gaining momentum since the early 1990s. The World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen (2005) and the subsequent Millennium Summit in New York (2000) provided considerable political will for the reduction of poverty. The debate has been how a multi-dimensional subject like poverty can be measured statistically. Should we continue the single measure using consumption or accept a composite measure; and how would this measure be amenable to quantitative manipulation. This paper traced this methodological debate and offers the contribution that the intensity of poverty can be better measured using a composite income or expenditure metrics that captures expenditure on the individual's basic necessities of life such as food, health, clothing shelter, education etc. This is because changes in income or expenditure have multiplier effects that influence all aspects of the quality of human life, both at the micro and macro levels. Many of the known indices of poverty, such as those mentioned above, are directly or indirectly dependent on income. Even qualitative indicators such as dignity, power and security are better assured to people with higher income to spare.

Discuss the weaknesses of conventional methods of poverty measurement, highlighting the main resulting biases.

The emerging scope of international development has seen an increased focus since the Cold War, on poverty reduction across developing countries. With this, newly formed concepts of poverty have entered the discourse alongside attempts to produce statistical results using measurements of poverty, to contextualize new definitions, goals and designated outcomes. Conventional methods of poverty have thus arisen and produced varied methodologies, results and implications. This essay explores some of these main methods, analysing their weaknesses and resulting biases. Throughout the essay, a running critique will emphasise the foundational problem familiar to a range of development areas, indeed not just poverty reduction. Namely that analysts all too often assume, simplify and homogenise key concepts at the root of developmental issues, in particular poverty, those affected by poverty and its causes. A caution toward categorization will propose a lens of critique over many poverty measurements, suggesting that by creating simplistic structures of which to categorize people and poverty within, we risk reducing and homogenising complex, relative and rooted realities behind why poverty exists and who these people are. A critique within itself, this also sources the common problems found in our ability to measure poverty. These discourses surrounding poverty and its measurement are vital to development, as attempts to define and measure poverty have policy implications such as resource allocation, which can greatly affect people – from the marginalised to those inflicted by any form of inequality, communities, politics, local and global interests and likewise media portrayals.

The use of the consensual approach for the improvement of existing multidimensional poverty data in Latin America: an illustration based on data from the City of Buenos Aires

Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

This article aims at contributing to the current literature on poverty data limitations and measurement by discussing the process for producing the first multidimensional poverty measure based on the consensual approach for the City of Buenos Aires. The results show a remarkable level of consensus about the necessities of life in the twenty-first century, underline the importance of generating more suitable indicators of deprivation and show that unmet basic needs-type variables are no longer adequate for measuring poverty in countries like Argentina. According to the valid and reliable poverty index, 20.3% of the city’s population live in households in multidimensionally poor households, this being the social dimension that shows the highest deprivation rate.