Skip to Content

UNU-WIDER WP/2012/58 Conflicting Measures of Poverty and Inadequate Saving by the Poor

Support functions

A teenager wears torn rubber boots in a muddy local market in Bac Ha, Viet Nam. As of 2005 figures, half the world population—more than 3 billion people–is estimated to live on less than USD 2.50 a day. Bac Ha, Viet Nam. UN Photo/Kibae Park.

Table of contents

WP/058 Conflicting Measures of Poverty and Inadequate Saving by the Poor

wp2012-058.pdf wp2012-058.pdf (150.05 kilobytes)
In the presence of inequality a status-driven utility function reconciles the conflict between income-based and nutrition-based measures of poverty. Moreover, it can explain why the poor tend to save less, an established empirical fact in the developing countries. The result is independent of the assumption of imperfect capital market. The paper attempts to integrate various strands of literature on status effects.
Publisher:
UNU-WIDER
Series:
WIDER Working Paper
Volume:
2012/58
Title:
WP/058 Conflicting Measures of Poverty and Inadequate Saving by the Poor
Authors:
Sugata Marjit
Publication date:
June 2012
ISBN 13 Web:
978-92-9230-521-5
Copyright holder:
© UNU-WIDER
Copyright year:
2012
Keywords:
inequality, inter-temporal consumer choice, utility, poverty
JEL:
D63, D91, D11, I3
Project:
New Approaches to Measuring Poverty and Vulnerability
Sponsor:
UNU-WIDER gratefully acknowledges the financial contributions to the research programme by the governments of Denmark (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Finland (Ministry for Foreign Affairs), Sweden (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency—Sida), and the United Kingdom (Department for International Development).
Format:
online
^ Back to top

^ Back to top