Measures of absolute poverty and their applications in program planning and evaluation for increasing participation of the poor

The first chapter examines the strengths and weaknesses of four measures for identifying the absolutely poor: nutritional status; consumption capacity; the money needed to satisfy basic biological needs; and the goods associated with economic well-being. Chapter two, aimed at obtaining a summary poverty measure, distinguishes headcount, poverty gap, and weighted poverty gap measures and evaluates them against several criteria which are consistent with defining poverty in terms of biological deprivation. Attention is paid to the biases, vulnerabilities, and practicality of each measure. The effects of using seemingly harmless averaging assumptions in headcount measuring procedures are discussed. The final chapter, on the policy and program applications of poverty measures, shows how decomposition analysis and poverty profiling afford the information needed to provide direct funding to those most in need and most likely to escape program coverage, while also identifying the context in which poverty flourishes and opening up promising program approaches. Discussions of the use of poverty measures in analyzing the cost-effectiveness of alternative poverty programs and of the application of longitudinal poverty comparisons to policy and program evaluation conclude the study.