Measuring Poverty: A Rejoinder

摘要

I am pleased to receive these thoughtful commentaries. They illustrate the variety of perspectives with which people approach poverty measurement issues. Some of the comments highlight the theoretical concerns underpinning poverty measurement efforts, whereas others focus on empirical considerations. As a social scientist, I understand the importance of examining the often implicit theoretical assumptions that underlie any measurement effort. And yet, as someone who spent a few years working at a data collection and dissemination organization (the U.S. Census Bureau), I fully appreciate the challenges of implementing sometimes lofty measurement goals. In this rejoinder I focus on the twin problems of what a poverty measure should conceptually attempt to measure and implementation challenges.