Publication: Estimating International Poverty Lines from Comparable National Thresholds
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Date
2016-03
ISSN
Published
2016-03
Author(s)
Abstract
World Bank's international poverty
line of $1.90/day, at 2011 purchasing power parity, is based
on a collection of national poverty lines, which were
originally used to set the international poverty line of
$1.25/day at 2005 purchasing power parity. This paper
proposes an approach for estimating a more recent, complete,
and comparable collection of national poverty thresholds
from reported national poverty rates. The paper presents a
set of international poverty lines based on this new
database of national poverty lines. In contrast to the lines
used to estimate the $1.90 international poverty line, this
approach produces national poverty lines that are (1)
consistent with national poverty rates, (2) expressed in
common units, and (3) provide greater support to the
estimated international poverty line. These national poverty
lines are used to estimate an extreme international poverty
line, and three higher lines that are more relevant for
higher-income countries. A key finding provides evidence of
the robustness and relevance of the $1.90 international
poverty line as a measure of extreme poverty for low-income countries.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Jolliffe, Dean. 2016. Estimating International Poverty Lines from Comparable National Thresholds. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7606. © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24148 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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