Clarifying Poverty Decomposition

Konferenzbeitrag

I discuss how poverty decomposition methods relate to integral approximation, which ultimately is the foundation of every decomposition of the temporal change of a quantity into key drivers. This offers a common framework for the different decomposition methods used in the literature, clarifies their often somewhat unclear theoretical underpinning and identifies the methods' shortcomings. In light of integral approximation, many methods actually lack a sound theoretical basis and they usually have an ad-hoc character in assigning the residual terms to the different key effects. I illustrate these claims for the Shapley-value decomposition and methods related to the Datt-Ravaillon approach and point out difficulties in axiomatic approaches to poverty decomposition. Recent developments in energy and pollutant decomposition offer some improved methods, but ultimately, a further development of poverty decomposition should account for the basis in integral approximation.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Zürich 2008 ; No. 30

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Index Numbers and Aggregation; Leading indicators
• Subject: poverty analysis ; poverty measures ; decomposition ; Shapley-value ; inequality

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Müller, Adrian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Verein für Socialpolitik, Ausschuss für Entwicklungsländer
• (where): Göttingen
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/39900
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET