TY - JOUR
T1 - Calculating poverty measures from the generalised beta income distribution
AU - Chotikapanich, Duangkamon
AU - Griffiths, William Edward
AU - Karunarathne, Wasana
AU - Rao, D S Prasada
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Data for measuring poverty are frequently available in a summary form that describes the proportion of income or expenditure for each of a number of population proportions. While various discrete poverty measures can be applied directly to data in this limited form, they typically require an arbitrary approach to within-group interpolation. This problem can be overcome by fitting either a parametric income distribution or a Lorenz curve to the grouped data and computing the required quantities from estimated parameters. The Lorenz curve approach is widely used by the World Bank, but can encounter problems. As an alternative, in this article we show how to calculate several poverty measures from parameters of the generalized beta income distribution, and its popular special cases. An analysis of poverty changes in countries from South and Southeast Asia is used to illustrate the methodology.
AB - Data for measuring poverty are frequently available in a summary form that describes the proportion of income or expenditure for each of a number of population proportions. While various discrete poverty measures can be applied directly to data in this limited form, they typically require an arbitrary approach to within-group interpolation. This problem can be overcome by fitting either a parametric income distribution or a Lorenz curve to the grouped data and computing the required quantities from estimated parameters. The Lorenz curve approach is widely used by the World Bank, but can encounter problems. As an alternative, in this article we show how to calculate several poverty measures from parameters of the generalized beta income distribution, and its popular special cases. An analysis of poverty changes in countries from South and Southeast Asia is used to illustrate the methodology.
U2 - 10.1111/1475-4932.12031
DO - 10.1111/1475-4932.12031
M3 - Article
VL - 89
SP - 48
EP - 66
JO - Economic Record
JF - Economic Record
SN - 0013-0249
IS - S1
ER -