Escaping poverty: behind the numbers

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Abstract
Head counts of poverty are the most commonly used indicator of poverty level. While not ideal, the analysis of poverty head counts informs conclusions about whether households move in or out of poverty over time. Longitudinal data from repeated surveys show that, at the country level, some countries have lifted their populations out of poverty, while the populations of other countries have either remained poor or become poorer. How these scenarios come to be is the key question that challenges the development community. What mix of country characteristics, policies, structural features and external influences conspire to either improve or deteriorate well‐being and to affect overall poverty levels? Unfortunately, changes in poverty levels might sometimes be the result of changes in poverty measurement methodology, with no real change in the well‐being of the population. For this reason, poverty assessment should begin with an analysis of the measurement methodology – particularly given the increased global enthusiasm for poverty reduction. This article examines panel data from Mongolia and the Philippines to show how seemingly slight variations in survey methodology can have a rather significant impact on poverty results. In order to make a robust comparison of poverty head counts from different surveys, the basic building blocks of the poverty measures must be identical. This is not always the case. Given the difficulties identified with money‐metric head counts, this study concludes by arguing for a move beyond economic statistics, toward multidisciplinary approaches to poverty assessment. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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