Course Summary:

The objective of this training course was to introduce participants to the tools and methods for the analysis of poverty using household survey data. Particular emphasis was given to poverty dynamics and intertemporal aspects of poverty measurement and modeling. Hands-on applications using the Stata software were conducted to facilitate later use of the tools presented in the course. References were provided to participants, drawing on seminal and recent works on poverty measurement and analysis.

Course Objectives:

• measure and interpret static poverty measures using household survey data;
• measure and model poverty dynamics using longitudinal survey data;
• distinguish poverty from vulnerability;
• measure pro-poor growth;
• understand the basics of poverty monitoring and impact evaluation.

Course Outline

Review Of The Basics Of Poverty Measurement

• Introduction: What is poverty? Why measuring poverty?
• Defining a measure of welfare
• Setting the poverty line
• Aggregating individual information: FGT index, Sen Index, Watts index

Poverty Dynamics

• Introduction: How to describe poverty dynamics
• Trigger Events
• Chronic and Transient Poverty
• Measures of persistent poverty
• Data Issues: repeated cross-section, panel data.
• Modeling poverty dynamics: transition and duration models, variance components models
• Indicators of inter-temporal Poverty

Vulnerability To Poverty

• Definition and sources of vulnerability
• Measurement Issues

Non-Monetary Dimensions Of Poverty

• Multidimensional aspects of poverty
• Measurement Issues

Poverty Monitoring And Evaluation

• Introduction: monitoring versus impact evaluation
• The different steps of an impact evaluation
• The challenge of the counterfactual

Pro-Poor Growth

• Definition
• Measures
• The repeated cross-section approach
• The panel data approach