Nanak Kakwani

Socioeconomic inequalities in health: Measurement, computation, and statistical inference

This paper clarifies the relationship between two widely used indices of health inequality and explains why these are superior to others indices used in the literature. It also develops asymptotic estimators for their variances and clarifies the role that demographic standardization plays in the analysis of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Empirical illustrations are presented for Dutch health survey data.

Income inequality and poverty : methods of estimation and policy applications

In a closed economy, income is created in production with the aid of factors such as land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. Production takes place within different firms and government organizations, and, at the same time, income is created and distributed to income units. From this process, a pattern of distribution emerges that has been found to be stable over time and space. This feature of income distribution has provoked a number of alternative theories explaining the generation of income. The present study focuses on the following issues: (a) income distribution functions, (b) measurement of the degree of income inequality, (c) government policies affecting personal distribution of income, and (d) measurement of poverty.

Applications of Lorenz Curves in Economic Analysis

The Lorenz curve relates the cumulative proportion of income units to the cumulative proportion of income received when units are arranged in ascending order of their income. In the past the curve has been mainly used as a convenient graphic device to represent the size distribution of income and wealth. In this paper the Lorenz curve technique is used as a tool to introduce distributional considerations in economic analysis. The concept has been extended and generalized to study the relationships among the distributions of different economic variables. The generalized Lorenz curves are called concentration curves and the Lorenz curve is only a special case of such curves, the concentration curve for income. Section 2 of the paper gives the derivation of the Lorenz curve. Section 3 provides some theorems relative to the concentration curve of a function and its elasticity, which provide the basis for studying relationships among the distributions of different economic variables. Section 4 discusses applications of the theorems.

Efficient Estimation of the Lorenz Curve and Associated Inequality Measures from Grouped Observations

The Lorenz curve is widely used to represent and analyze the size distribution of income and wealth. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new coordinate system for the Lorenz curve, with particular attention to a special case of wide empirical validity. Four alternative methods have been used to estimate the proposed Lorenz curve from the grouped observations. The well-known inequality measures are obtained as the function of the estimated parameters of the Lorenz curve. The procedure of estimating the asymptotic standard errors of the inequality measures is also provided. In addition, the frequency distribution is derived from the equation of the Lorenz curve. A new representation of the Lorenz curve is introduced and related to a number of conventional measures of income inequality. The report describes a number of estimation methods and reports some empirical results based on the data from the Australian survey of Consumer Expenditure and Finances.

Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement

Foreword N.Lustig Preface N.Kakwani Introduction: Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement N.Kakwani & J.Silber The Information Theory Approach E.Maasoumi & M.A.Lugo The Fuzzy Approach to Multidimensional Poverty G.Betti, B.Cheli, A.Lemmi & V.Verma The Rasch Model and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement A.Fusco & P.Dickes Multidimensional Poverty: Factor and Cluster Analysis G.F.Luzzi, Y.Fluckiger & S.Weber Multidimensional Poverty and Multiple Correspondence Analysis L-M.Asselin & V.T.Anh Permanent Income, Poverty Measurement and the MIMIC Model R.H.Abul Naga & E.Bolzani Multidimensional Measures of Poverty and Well-Being based on Latent Variable Models J.Krishnakumar The Subjective Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement B.van Praag & A.Ferrer-i-Carbonell The Econometric Approach to Efficiency Analysis X.Ramos Efficiency Analysis and the Lower Convex Hull G.Anderson, I.Crawford & A.Leicester The Axiomatic Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement S.R.Chakravarty & J.Silber Determining the Parameters of Axiomatically Derived Multidimensional Poverty Indices C.E.Velez& M.Robles The Order of Acquisition of Durable Goods and the Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty J.Deutsch & J.Silber Using an Ordinal Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Analysis J-Y.Duclos, D.Sahn & S.D.Younger

The many dimensions of poverty

Preface N.Kakwani Foreword N.Lustig Introduction: The Many Dimensions of Poverty N.Kakwani & J.Silber PART ONE: DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES, DIVERSE PERCEPTIONS Multidimensional Poverty: Conceptual and Measurement Issues E.Thorbecke Measuring Poverty: The Case for a Sociological Approach D.B.Grusky & K.A.Weeden Poverty Counts: Living with Poverty and Poverty Measures S.Berry The Multidimensionality of Poverty: An Institutionalist Perspective A.Sindzingre The Subjective Dimension of Poverty: A Psychological Viewpoint J.Palomar Lever PART II: ON POVERTY AND FREEDOM The Capability Approach: Mapping Measurement Issues and Choosing Dimensions S.Alkire On the Concept and Measurement of Empowerment R.Alsop Participation, Pluralism and Perceptions of Poverty R.Chambers A Human Rights Based Approach to Poverty L.J.van Rensburg PART III: EXTENDING THE CONCEPT OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY Indentifying and Measuring Chronic Poverty: Beyond Monetary Measures? D.Hulme & A.McKay Risk and Vulnerability to Poverty C.Calvo & S.Dercon PART IV: CRITICAL POLICY ISSUES On the Political Economy of Poverty Alleviation M.C.Neri & M.C.Xerez On Assessing the Pro-Poorness of Government Programmes: International Comparisons N.Kakwani & H.H.Son

The Relative Deprivation Curve and Its Applications

This article introduces the relative deprivation curve to represent the size distribution of income and wealth. The curve has many useful applications in the measurement of poverty and inequality, which are explored. The methodology developed is then applied to the data obtained from the Australian Household Expenditure Survey, 1975–1976.

Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate

This paper proposes a new type of growth rate, called the “poverty equivalent growth rate” (PEGR), which takes into account both the growth rate in mean income and how the benefits of growth are distributed between the poor and the non‐poor. The proposed measure satisfies a basic requirement that the proportional reduction in poverty is a monotonically increasing function of the PEGR. Thus, maximizing the PEGR implies a maximum reduction in poverty. The paper demonstrates that the magnitude of PEGR determines the pattern of growth: whether growth is pro‐poor in relative or absolute sense or is “poverty reducing” pro‐poor. The pattern of growth has been analyzed for Brazil using the National Household Survey (PNAD) covering the period 1995–2005.

Welfare measures: An international comparison

Abstract Based on previous work by Sen and the author, alternative welfare measures are proposed that take into account both the level and distribution of income. An empirical application shows that there are substantial differences among countries with respect to the level of welfare, even among subgroups such as mature capitalist economies.

On the estimation of Engel elasticities from grouped observations with application to Indonesian data

Abstract This paper considers certain statistical questions that arise in estimating the Engel elasticities from grouped observations. It is demonstrated that the usual generalized least-squares method of estimating the non-linear Engel functions from grouped observations introduces bias in the parameter estimates. The equation of the Lorenz curve recently proposed by Kakwani and Podder is used to obtain the unbiased estimates of the Engel parameters. The empirical results using Indonesian data show that the magnitude of the bias in the elasticity estimates of the different commodities depend on the form of the Engel function. Further, an alternative method of estimating elasticities from concentration curves is considered. Finally, using the concentration indices, a new index of elasticity is introduced.