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In 2005, China participated for the first time in the International Comparison Program (ICP), which collects primary data across countries on the prices for an internationally comparable list of goods and services. This paper examines the implications of the new Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) rate (derived by the ICP) for China's poverty rate (by international standards) and how it has changed over time. We provide estimates with and without adjustment for a likely sampling bias in the ICP data. Using an international poverty line of USD 1.25 at 2005 PPP, we find a substantially higher poverty rate for China than past estimates, with about 15% of the population living in consumption poverty, implying about 130 million more poor by this standard. The income poverty rate in 2005 is 10%, implying about 65 million more people living in poverty. However, the new ICP data suggest an even larger reduction in the number of poor since 1981.

Extreme poverty --- Global poverty --- Incidence of poverty --- Income --- Income poverty --- International poverty line --- National poverty --- National poverty lines --- Poor --- Poverty measures --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction

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The authors provide new evidence on the extent to which absolute poverty has urbanized in the developing world, and the role that population urbanization has played in overall poverty reduction. They find that one-quarter of the world's consumption poor live in urban areas and that the proportion has been rising over time. By fostering economic growth, urbanization helped reduce absolute poverty in the aggregate but did little for urban poverty. Over 1993-2002, the count of the "USD 1 a day" poor fell by 150 million in rural areas but rose by 50 million in urban areas. The poor have been urbanizing even more rapidly than the population as a whole. Looking forward, the recent pace of urbanization and current forecasts for urban population growth imply that a majority of the poor will still live in rural areas for many decades to come. There are marked regional differences: Latin America has the most urbanized poverty problem, East Asia has the least; there has been a "ruralization" of poverty in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; in marked contrast to other regions, Africa's urbanization process has not been associated with falling overall poverty.

Absolute Poverty --- Agricultural Production --- Economic Growth --- Global Poverty --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Income --- International Poverty Lines --- Local Poverty Lines --- Measures --- National Poverty --- Poor --- Poor Living --- Population Policies --- Poverty Assessments --- Poverty Incidence --- Poverty Measures --- Poverty Profile --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural --- Rural Areas --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty --- Rural Poverty Lines --- Rural Poverty Reduction

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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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Brazil, China and India have seen falling poverty in their reform periods, but to varying degrees and for different reasons. History left China with favorable initial conditions for rapid poverty reduction through market-led economic growth; at the outset of the reform process there were ample distortions to remove and relatively low inequality in access to the opportunities so created, though inequality has risen markedly since. By concentrating such opportunities in the hands of the better off, prior inequalities in various dimensions handicapped poverty reduction in both Brazil and India. Brazil's recent success in complementing market-oriented reforms with progressive social policies has helped it achieve more rapid poverty reduction than India, although Brazil has been less successful in terms of economic growth. In the wake of its steep rise in inequality, China might learn from Brazil's success with such policies. India needs to do more to assure that poor people are able to participate in both the country's growth process and its social policies; here there are lessons from both China and Brazil. All three countries have learned how important macroeconomic stability is to poverty reduction.

Consumption expenditures --- Economic growth --- Household consumption --- Household surveys --- Impact on poverty --- Income --- Income distribution --- Inequality --- Macroeconomic stability --- National poverty --- National poverty line --- National poverty lines --- Poor --- Poor people --- Poverty line --- Poverty measures --- Poverty Reduction --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Regional Economic Development --- Rural --- Rural areas --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Social policies

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This paper provides a new definition of 'time poverty' as working long hours and having no choice to do otherwise. An individual is time poor if he/she is working long hours and is also monetary poor, or would fall into monetary poverty if he/she were to reduce his/her working hours below a given time poverty line. Thus being time poor results from the combination of two conditions. First, the individual does not have enough time for rest and leisure once all working hours (whether spent in the labor market or doing household chores such as cooking, and fetching water and wood) are accounted for. Second, the individual cannot reduce his/her working time without either increasing the level of poverty of his/her household (if the household is already poor) or leading his/her household to fall into monetary poverty due to the loss in income or consumption associated with the reduction in working time (if the household is not originally poor). The paper applies the concepts of the traditional poverty literature to the analysis of time poverty and presents a case study using data for Guinea in 2002-03. Both univariate and multivariate results suggest that women are significantly more likely to be time poor than men.

Food production --- Gender dimensions --- Household chores --- Household needs --- Human capital --- Human development --- Income --- Income poverty --- Inequality --- Measures --- Poor --- Poor people --- Poverty --- Poverty gap --- Poverty line --- Poverty measurement --- Poverty measures --- Poverty Reduction --- Poverty status --- Regional Economic Development --- Rural Development --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Transfers