This graduate text provides a review of the major approaches employed for estimating poverty lines and how poverty is estimated in practice.

• PART I: PRINCIPLES AND CHOICES


• 1: Channing Arndt and Finn Tarp: Measuring poverty and wellbeing in developing countries: motivation and overview


• 2: Channing Arndt, Kristi Mahrt, and Finn Tarp: Absolute poverty lines


• 3: Channing Arndt, Nikolaj Siersbæk, and Lars Peter Østerdal: Multidimensional first-order dominance comparisons of population wellbeing


• 4: Channing Arndt and Kristi Mahrt: Estimation in practice


• PART II: COUNTRY APPLICATIONS


• 5: David Stifel and Tassew Woldehanna: Estimating utility-consistent poverty in Ethiopia, 2000-11


• 6: David Stifel, Tiaray Razafimanantena, and Faly Rakotomanana: Estimating utility-consistent poverty in Madagascar, 2001-10


• 7: Ulrik Beck, Richard Mussa, and Karl Pauw: Methods matter: the sensitivity of Malawian poverty estimates to definitions, data, and assumptions


• 8: Channing Arndt, Sam Jones, Kristi Mahrt, Vincenzo Salvucci, and Finn Tarp: A review of consumption poverty estimation for Mozambique


• 9: Hina Nazli, Edward Whitney, and Kristi Mahrt: Poverty trends in Pakistan


• 10: Bjorn Van Campenhout, Haruna Sekabira, and Fiona Nattembo: Uganda: a new set of utility-consistent poverty lines


• 11: Kristi Mahrt and Malokele Nanivazo: Estimating multidimensional childhood poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo: 2007-2013


• 12: Raymond Elikplim Kofinti, and Samuel Kobina Annim: Child deprivation and income poverty in Ghana


• 13: Olu Ajakaiye, Afeikhena T. Jerome, Olanrewaju Olaniyan, Olufunke A. Alaba, and Kristi Mahrt: Spatial and temporal multidimensional poverty in Nigeria


• 14: Channing Arndt, Vincent Leyaro, Kristi Mahrt, and Finn Tarp: Multidimensional assessment of child welfare for Tanzania


• 15: Kristi Mahrt and Gibson Masumbu: Estimating multidimensional poverty in Zambia


• PART III: SUMMING-UP AND LESSONS LEARNT


• 16: Channing Arndt, Kristi Mahrt, and Finn Tarp: Synthesis


• 17: Ulrik Richardt Beck: Keep it real: measuring real inequality using survey data from developing countries


• 18: Channing Arndt and Finn Tarp: Conclusions and looking forward


• APPENDIX A: User guide to Poverty Line Estimation Analytical Software-PLEASe


• APPENDIX B: User guide to Estimating First-Order Dominance software (EFOD)

Channing Arndt is a senior research fellow at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER. He has substantial research management experience including leadership of interdisciplinary teams. His programme of research has focused on poverty alleviation and growth, agricultural development, market integration, gender and discrimination, the implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, technological change, trade policy, aid effectiveness, infrastructure investment, energy and biofuels, climate variability, and the economic implications of climate change.
Finn Tarp is Director of UNU-WIDER and Coordinator of the Development Economics Research Group (DERG) at the University of Copenhagen. He is a leading international expert on issues of development strategy and foreign aid, with a sustained interest in poverty, income distribution, and growth. He has published widely in international academic journals alongside various books. He is a member of the World Bank Chief Economist's Council of Eminent Persons and is a resource person of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).