Updating Poverty Estimates at Frequent Intervals in the Absence of Consumption Data: Methods and Illustration with Reference to a Middle-Income Country

56 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016 Last revised: 21 May 2020

See all articles by Hai-Anh Dang

Hai-Anh Dang

World Bank - Development Data Group (DECDG); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Indiana University Bloomington - School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA); Global Labor Organization (GLO); Vietnam National University Ha Noi

Peter F. Lanjouw

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Umar Serajuddin

World Bank

Peter F. Lanjouw

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: September 1, 2014

Abstract

Obtaining consistent estimates on poverty over time as well as monitoring poverty trends on a timely basis is a priority concern for policy makers. However, these objectives are not readily achieved in practice when household consumption data are neither frequently collected, nor constructed using consistent and transparent criteria. This paper develops a formal framework for survey-to-survey poverty imputation in an attempt to overcome these obstacles, and to elevate the discussion of these methods beyond the largely ad-hoc efforts in the existing literature. The framework introduced here imposes few restrictive assumptions, works with simple variance formulas, provides guidance on the selection of control variables for model building, and can be generally applied to imputation either from one survey to another survey with the same design, or to another survey with a different design. Empirical results analyzing the Household Expenditure and Income Survey and the Unemployment and Employment Survey in Jordan are quite encouraging, with imputation-based poverty estimates closely tracking the direct estimates of poverty.

Keywords: Inequality, Hydrology, Economics and Finance of Public Institution Development, Public Sector Administrative & Civil Service Reform, Democratic Government, State Owned Enterprise Reform, Public Sector Administrative and Civil Service Reform, De Facto Governments, Energy Demand, Energy and Environment, Energy and Mining, Demographics

Suggested Citation

Dang, Hai-Anh H. and Lanjouw, Peter F. and Serajuddin, Umar and Lanjouw, Peter F., Updating Poverty Estimates at Frequent Intervals in the Absence of Consumption Data: Methods and Illustration with Reference to a Middle-Income Country (September 1, 2014). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7043, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2500585

Hai-Anh H. Dang (Contact Author)

World Bank - Development Data Group (DECDG) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/haianhhdang/

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

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Indiana University Bloomington - School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA) ( email )

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Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Collogne
Germany

Vietnam National University Ha Noi ( email )

Peter F. Lanjouw

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

1818 H. Street, N.W.
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United States
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HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/planjouw

Umar Serajuddin

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Peter F. Lanjouw

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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