About the Book
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Detailed analyses of poverty and wellbeing in developing countries, based on household surveys, have been ongoing for more than three decades. The large majority of developing countries now regularly conduct a variety of household surveys, and the
information base in developing countries with respect to poverty and wellbeing has improved dramatically. Nevertheless, appropriate measurement of poverty remains complex and controversial. This is
particularly true in developing countries where (i) the stakes with respect to poverty reduction are high; (ii) the determinants of living standards are often volatile; and (iii) related information bases, while much improved, are often characterized by significant non-sample error. It also remains, to a surprisingly high degree, an activity undertaken by technical assistance personnel and consultants based in developed countries. This book seeks to enhance the
transparency, replicability, and comparability of existing practice. In so doing, it also aims to significantly lower the barriers to entry to the conduct of rigorous poverty measurement and increase the
participation of analysts from developing countries in their own poverty assessments. The book focuses on two domains: the measurement of absolute consumption poverty and a first order dominance approach to multidimensional welfare analysis. In each domain, it provides a series of flexible computer codes designed to facilitate analysis by allowing the analyst to start from a flexible and known base. The book volume covers the theoretical grounding for the code streams
provided, a chapter on 'estimation in practice', a series of 11 case studies where the code streams are operationalized, as well as a synthesis, an extension to inequality, and a look forward.
Table of Contents:
PART I: PRINCIPLES AND CHOICES
1: Channing Arndt and Finn Tarp: Measuring poverty and wellbeing in developing countries: motivation and overview
2: Channing Arndt, Kristi Mahrt, and Finn Tarp: Absolute poverty lines
3: Channing Arndt, Nikolaj Siersbæk, and Lars Peter Østerdal: Multidimensional first-order dominance comparisons of population wellbeing
4: Channing Arndt and Kristi Mahrt: Estimation in practice
PART II: COUNTRY APPLICATIONS
5: David Stifel and Tassew Woldehanna: Estimating utility-consistent poverty in Ethiopia, 2000-11
6: David Stifel, Tiaray Razafimanantena, and Faly Rakotomanana: Estimating utility-consistent poverty in Madagascar, 2001-10
7: Ulrik Beck, Richard Mussa, and Karl Pauw: Methods matter: the sensitivity of Malawian poverty estimates to definitions, data, and assumptions
8: Channing Arndt, Sam Jones, Kristi Mahrt, Vincenzo Salvucci, and Finn Tarp: A review of consumption poverty estimation for Mozambique
9: Hina Nazli, Edward Whitney, and Kristi Mahrt: Poverty trends in Pakistan
10: Bjorn Van Campenhout, Haruna Sekabira, and Fiona Nattembo: Uganda: a new set of utility-consistent poverty lines
11: Kristi Mahrt and Malokele Nanivazo: Estimating multidimensional childhood poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo: 2007-2013
12: Raymond Elikplim Kofinti, and Samuel Kobina Annim: Child deprivation and income poverty in Ghana
13: Olu Ajakaiye, Afeikhena T. Jerome, Olanrewaju Olaniyan, Olufunke A. Alaba, and Kristi Mahrt: Spatial and temporal multidimensional poverty in Nigeria
14: Channing Arndt, Vincent Leyaro, Kristi Mahrt, and Finn Tarp: Multidimensional assessment of child welfare for Tanzania
15: Kristi Mahrt and Gibson Masumbu: Estimating multidimensional poverty in Zambia
PART III: SUMMING-UP AND LESSONS LEARNT
16: Channing Arndt, Kristi Mahrt, and Finn Tarp: Synthesis
17: Ulrik Richardt Beck: Keep it real: measuring real inequality using survey data from developing countries
18: Channing Arndt and Finn Tarp: Conclusions and looking forward
Channing Arndt, Ulrik Richardt Beck, M. Azhar Hussain, Kristi Mahrt, Kenneth Simler, and Finn Tarp: APPENDIX A: User guide to Poverty Line Estimation Analytical Software-PLEASe
Channing Arndt and Kristi Mahrt: APPENDIX B: User guide to Estimating First-Order Dominance software (EFOD)
About the Author :
Channing Arndt is a senior research fellow at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER. He has substantial research management experience including leadership of interdisciplinary teams. His programme of research has focused on poverty alleviation and growth, agricultural development, market integration, gender and discrimination, the implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, technological change, trade policy, aid
effectiveness, infrastructure investment, energy and biofuels, climate variability, and the economic implications of climate change. Finn Tarp is Director of UNU-WIDER and Coordinator of the Development
Economics Research Group (DERG) at the University of Copenhagen. He is a leading international expert on issues of development strategy and foreign aid, with a sustained interest in poverty, income distribution, and growth. He has published widely in international academic journals alongside various books. He is a member of the World Bank Chief Economist's Council of Eminent Persons and is a resource person of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
Review :
"This excellent volume combines theoretical discussion of the utility-consistent cost of basic needs poverty approach and first-order dominance multidimensional poverty analysis, empirical application, and practical tools in the form of user guides for estimation software...essential reading for applied poverty researchers..." - Paul Shaffer, Department of International Development Studies, Trent University
"This book makes accessible the recent advances in consumption and multidimensional poverty measurement. The combination of literature review, computer code, and worked examples fill a major gap, making it possible for researchers in developing countries to estimate and analyse these metrics." - John F. Hoddinott, H.E. Babcock Professor of Food and Nutrition Economics and Policy, Cornell University
