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The authors report new estimates of measures of absolute poverty for the developing world over 1981-2004. A clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor is evident, although with uneven progress across regions. They find more mixed success in reducing the total number of poor. Indeed, the developing world outside China has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor, with rising poverty counts in some regions, notably Sub-Saharan Africa. There are encouraging signs of progress in reducing the incidence of poverty in all regions after 2000, although it is too early to say if this is a new trend.

Absolute Poverty --- Child Mortality --- Food Consumption --- Global Poverty --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Household Size --- Household Surveys --- Household Welfare --- Incidence of Poverty --- Income --- Inequality --- Per Capita Consumption --- Poor --- Poor People --- Population Policies --- Poverty Gap --- Poverty Gap Index --- Poverty Measurement --- Poverty Measures --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty --- Rural Poverty Line --- Rural Poverty Reduction

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This paper uses a sample of 73 developing countries to estimate the change in the cost of alleviating urban poverty brought about by the recent increase in food prices. This cost is approximated by the change in the poverty deficit, that is, the variation in financial resources required to eliminate poverty under perfect targeting. The results show that, for most countries, the cost represents less than 0.1 percent of gross domestic product. However, in the most severely affected, it may exceed 3 percent. In all countries, the change in the poverty deficit is mostly due to the negative real income effect of those households that were poor before the price shock, while the cost attributable to new households falling into poverty is negligible. Thus, in countries where transfer mechanisms with effective targeting already exist, the most cost-effective strategy would be to scale up such programs rather than designing tools to identify the new poor.

Debt Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Food and Beverage Industry --- Food prices --- Income --- Industry --- New poor --- Poor --- Poor households --- Poverty --- Poverty gap --- Poverty line --- Poverty Reduction --- Poverty threshold --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Targeting

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This paper compares for 13 Latin American countries the poverty and inequality impacts of cash transfer programs that are given to all children and the elderly (that is, "categorical" transfers), to programs of equal budget that are confined to the poor within each population group (that is, "poverty targeted" transfers). The analysis finds that both the incidence of poverty and the depth of the poverty gap are important factors affecting the relative effectiveness of categorical versus poverty targeted transfers. The comparison of transfers to children and the elderly also supports the view that choosing carefully categories of beneficiaries is almost as important as targeting the poor for achieving a high poverty and inequality impact. Overall, the findings suggest that although in the Latin American context poverty targeting tends to deliver higher poverty impacts, there are circumstances under which categorical targeting confined to geographical regions (sometimes called "geographic targeting") may be a valid option to consider. This is particularly the case in low-income countries with widespread pockets of poverty.

Cash transfer programs --- Inequality --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Poverty gap --- Poverty Monitoring & Analysis --- Poverty Reduction --- Poverty targeted transfers --- Regional Economic Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Services & Transfers to Poor --- Social Development

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The theory and evidence supporting a relativist approach to poverty measurement are critically reviewed. Various sources of welfare interdependence are identified, including the idea of "relative deprivation" as well other (positive and negative) welfare effects for poor people of belonging to a better-off group. An economic model combines informal risk sharing with the idea of a "positional good," and conditions are derived in which the relative deprivation effect dominates, implying a relative poverty measure. The paper then reviews the problems encountered in testing for welfare effects of relative deprivation and discusses the implications of micro evidence from Malawi. The results are consistent with the emphasis given to absolute level of living in development policy discussions. However, relative deprivation is still evident in the data from this poor but unequal country, and it is likely to become a more important factor as the country develops.

Absolute poverty --- Economic Theory and Research --- Food items --- Inequality --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Poor --- Poor people --- Poverty gap --- Poverty Lines --- Poverty measurement --- Poverty Reduction --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Risk sharing --- Rural --- Rural areas --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction

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This paper analyzes poverty in rural and semi-urban areas of Mexico (localities with less than 2,500 and 15,000 inhabitants, respectively) and it provides guidance on a social agenda and poverty alleviation strategy for rural Mexico. The analyses are based on INIGH and ENE datasets for 1992-2002. Monetary extreme poverty affected 42 percent of the rural population in dispersed rural areas and 21 percent in semi-urban areas in 2002, slightly less than one decade earlier. Most of the rural poor live in dispersed rural areas and 13.2 million people live in poverty in rural Mexico with less than 15,000 inhabitants. It is disproportionately a feature of households whose heads main job is in the agricultural sector, as self-employed farmers or rural laborers, and that have at most a primary education. However, the incidence of extreme rural poverty has declined since 1996 but at a slower pace than the decline in urban poverty. Hence, the rural-urban poverty gap increased in recent years and in some places extreme poverty is at least four times higher in rural than urban areas. Moreover, not only is the income gap in urban areas increasing, but also the gap between richer and poorer segments of the population.

Agricultural Sector --- Extreme Poverty --- Farmers --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Household Surveys --- Income --- Income Gap --- Population Policies --- Poverty --- Poverty Alleviation --- Poverty Alleviation Strategy --- Poverty Gap --- Poverty Line --- Poverty Lines --- Poverty Profile --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural --- Rural Areas --- Rural Development --- Rural Laborers --- Rural People --- Rural Poor --- Rural Population --- Rural Poverty --- Rural Poverty Reduction