Abstract
This essay subjects to criticism the dominant convention in the inequality-measurement and poverty-measurement literature of employing wholly ‘relative’ indices, and advocates, instead, the routine use of ‘centrist’ measures. In the process, the paper revisits some old debates on the logical adequacy and normative appeal of measures of inequality and poverty that are either wholly relative or wholly absolute. The implication of these issues for the diagnosis of magnitudes and trends in inequality and poverty is illustrated by means of a couple of simple empirical examples drawn from Indian data.
This chapter draws heavily and directly on a previously published paper of the author’s, the content from which is re-used here with the permission of the copyright holder: S. Subramanian (2020) Revisiting an Old Theme in the Measurement of Inequality and Poverty, in: Saleth R., Galab S., Revathi E. (eds) Issues and Challenges of Inclusive Development, Springer: Singapore, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2229-1_13.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahluwalia MS (2011) Prospects and policy challenges in the twelfth plan. Econ Polit Wkly XLV I(21):88–105
Bhalla SS (2011) Inclusion and growth in India: some facts, some conclusions. LSE Asia Research Centre Working Paper 39
Dalton H (1920) The measurement of the inequality of incomes. Econ J 30(119):348–361
Foster JE, Greer J, Thorbecke E (1984) A class of decomposable poverty measures. Econometrica 52(3):761–766
Kolm SCh (1976a) Unequal inequalities I. J Econ Theor 12(3):416–454
Kolm SCh (1976b) Unequal inequalities II. J Econ Theor 13(1):82–111
Planning Commission (2009) Report of the expert group to review the methodology for estimation of poverty. Government of India, New Delhi
Srinivasan TN (2017) Planning, poverty and political economy of reforms: a tribute to Suresh D. Tendulkar. In Krishna KL, Pandit V, Sundaram K, Dua P (eds) Perspectives on Economic Policy and Development in India: In Honour of Suresh Tendulkar, Springer: Delhi
Subramanian S (2002) Counting the poor: an elementary difficulty in the measurement of poverty. Econ Philos 18(2):277–285
Subramanian S (2018) On comprehensively intermediate measures of inequality and poverty, with an illustrative application to global data. J Global Dev. https://doi.org/10.1515/jgd-2017-0027
Subramanian S, Lalvani M (2018) Poverty, growth, inequality: some general and India-specific considerations. Indian Growth and Development Review 11(2):136–151
Temkin L (1993) Inequality. Oxford University Press, Clarendon
Townsend P (1979) The development of research on poverty. In: Department of health and social security: social security research: the definition and measurement of poverty. HMSO, London
Zheng B (2007) Unit-consistent poverty indices. Econ Theor 31(1):113–142
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Subramanian, S. (2021). Revisiting an Old Theme in the Measurement of Inequality and Poverty. In: Social Values and Social Indicators. Themes in Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0428-7_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0428-7_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-0427-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-0428-7
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)