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Econometrica Vol. 59 No. 3 1991

Subgroup Consistent Poverty Indices

James E. Foster; Anthony F. Shorrocks

Abstract

It seems desirable that the overall level of poverty should fall whenever poverty decreases within some subgroup of the population and is unchanged outside that group. Yet this simple and attractive property, which we call "subgroup consistency, " is violated by many of the poverty indices suggested in recent years. This paper characterizes the class of subgroup consistent poverty indices, and identifies the special features associated with this property.

DOI
10.2307/2938224
Volume
59
Issue
3
Pages
687
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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