Publication: Poor, or Just Feeling Poor? On Using Subjective Data in Measuring Poverty
Date
2012-02-01
ISSN
Published
2012-02-01
Author(s)
Abstract
The challenges faced in calibrating
poverty and welfare measures to objective data have long
been recognized. Until recently, most economists have
resisted a seemingly obvious solution, namely to ask people
themselves: "Do you feel poor?" The paper studies
the case for and against this approach. It is argued that,
while one would not want to use self-assessments as welfare
metrics in their own right, there is scope for using such
data to help calibrate multidimensional measures. Indeed,
the idea of a "social subjective poverty line"
(below which people tend to think they are poor, but above
which they do not) is arguably the most conceptually
appealing way of defining poverty. However, the paper points
to a number of concerns that have received insufficient
attention, including the choice of covariates, survey design
issues, measurement errors, frame-of-reference effects, and
latent heterogeneity in personality traits and personal
tradeoffs. Directions for future research are identified.
Citation
“Ravallion, Martin. 2012. Poor, or Just Feeling Poor? On Using Subjective Data in Measuring Poverty. Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5968. © http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/3254 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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