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Article: Defining poverty lines as a fraction of central tendency.
- Article from:
- Southern Economic Journal
- Article date:
- January 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Southern Economic Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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1. Introduction
For many years the relative notions of poverty have been important. These notions account for the evolution of perceptions of basic needs evolving in society (Sen 1983; Foster 1998). Being poor among a population of poor people can be considered very differently from being poor in a wealthy environment. This concern is often met by updating the poverty line across time in relation to the distribution of living standards. In these conditions, are the evolution patterns of poverty measures a real economic phenomena or only hidden consequences of methodological choices? (1) This paper addresses this question.
The literature on poverty lines ...