Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire
提出基于线性规划的国际贫困测量新方法,通过最低成本饮食和气候调整的非食品支出,优于世界银行每天1美元标准,发现亚洲贫困程度更严重。
A new basis for an international poverty measurement is proposed based on linear programming for specifying the least cost diet and explicit budgeting for nonfood spending. This approach is superior to the World Bank's $1-a-day line because it is (i) clearly related to survival and well being; (ii) comparable across time and space since the same nutritional requirements are used everywhere while nonfood spending is tailored to climate; (iii) adjusts consumption patterns to local prices; (iv) presents no index number problems since solutions are always in local prices; and (v) requires only readily available information. The new approach implies much more poverty than the World Bank's, especially in Asia.