Measuring Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean: Methodological Considerations When Estimating an Empirical Regional Poverty Line

35 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Raul Castaneda

Raul Castaneda

World Bank

Leonardo Gasparini

Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Faculty of Economics

Santiago Garriga

Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Leonardo Lucchetti

World Bank

Daniel Valderrama

World Bank

Date Written: April 4, 2016

Abstract

This paper contributes to the methodological literature on the estimation of poverty lines for country poverty comparisons in Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper exploits a unique, comprehensive data set of 86 up-to-date urban official extreme and moderate poverty lines across 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the recent values of the national purchasing power parity conversion factors from the 2011 International Comparison Program and a set of harmonized household surveys that are part of the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean project. Because of the dispersion of country-specific poverty lines, the paper concludes that the value of a regional poverty line largely depends on the selected aggregation method, which ends up having a direct impact on the estimation of regional extreme and moderate poverty headcounts.

Keywords: Poverty Assessment, Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping, Poverty Monitoring & Analysis, Poverty Lines, Poverty Impact Evaluation, Poverty Diagnostics

Suggested Citation

Castaneda, Raul and Gasparini, Leonardo and Garriga, Santiago and Lucchetti, Leonardo and Valderrama, Daniel, Measuring Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean: Methodological Considerations When Estimating an Empirical Regional Poverty Line (April 4, 2016). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7621, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2759110

Raul Castaneda (Contact Author)

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
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2026778971 (Phone)

Leonardo Gasparini

Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Faculty of Economics ( email )

1900 La Plata
Argentina

Santiago Garriga

Paris School of Economics (PSE) ( email )

48 Boulevard Jourdan
Paris, 75014 75014
France

Leonardo Lucchetti

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Daniel Valderrama

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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