Brunori, PaoloFerreira, FranciscoLugo, Maria AnaPeragine, Vito2014-02-052014-02-052013-12https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16944This paper offers an axiomatic characterization of two classes of poverty measures that are sensitive to inequality of opportunity, one a strict subset of the other. The proposed indices are sensitive not only to income shortfalls from the poverty line, but also to differences in the opportunities faced by people with different predetermined characteristics, such as race or family background. Dominance conditions are established for each class of measures and a sub-family of scalar indices, based on a rank-dependent aggregation of type-specific poverty levels, is also introduced. In empirical analysis using household survey data from eighteen European countries in 2005, substantial differences in country rankings based on standard Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices and on the new opportunity-sensitive indices are found. Cross-country differences in opportunity-sensitive poverty are decomposed into a level effect, a distribution effect, and a population composition effect.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOABSOLUTE VALUEAGGREGATE POVERTYAVERAGE INCOMEAVERAGE INCOMESCHANGES IN POVERTYCONFLICTCONSUMPTION EXPENDITURESCOUNTERFACTUALCROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCESCUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTIONDECOMPOSABLE POVERTYDECOMPOSABLE POVERTY MEASURESDENSITY FUNCTIONDESCRIPTIVE STATISTICSDEVELOPED COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT POLICYDIMENSIONAL POVERTYDISPOSABLE INCOMEDISTRIBUTION EFFECTDISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONDISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONSECONOMIC INEQUALITYECONOMIC PERFORMANCEECONOMIC POLICYEMPIRICAL ANALYSISEMPIRICAL APPLICATIONEMPIRICAL RESULTSEX-ANTE INEQUALITYEXCHANGE RATESHEADCOUNT POVERTYHIGH COSTHOUSEHOLD HEADSHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHOUSEHOLD INCOMESHOUSEHOLD NEEDSHOUSEHOLD SIZEHUMAN CAPITALINCOMEINCOME DIFFERENCESINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME DISTRIBUTIONSINCOME INCREASEINCOME LEVELSINCOME POVERTYINCOME TRANSFERINCOME-POVERTYINCREASE POVERTYINCREASING FUNCTIONINEQUALITYINEQUALITY AVERSIONINEQUALITY MEASUREMENTLABOR MARKETMAXIMUM INCOMEMEAN INCOMEMEAN INCOMESMEASUREMENT OF POVERTYMEASURING INEQUALITYMINIMUM LEVELPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY IMPLICATIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOORPOOR COUNTRYPOOR INDIVIDUALSPOPULATION COMPOSITIONPOPULATION SHAREPOVERTY COMPARISONSPOVERTY GAPPOVERTY HEADCOUNTPOVERTY INCIDENCEPOVERTY INDEXPOVERTY INDICESPOVERTY LEVELPOVERTY LEVELSPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY LINESPOVERTY MEASUREPOVERTY MEASUREMENTPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY RANKINGSPOVERTY RATEPOVERTY RATESPOVERTY STATUSPOVERTY THRESHOLDPUBLIC ECONOMICSRELATIVE POVERTYSOCIAL POLICYWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-6728