It was argued in the previous chapter that the measurement of poverty can be split into two distinct operations—identification and aggregation. Within this general perspective, this chapter takes up some more detailed and more technical issues concerned with identification and aggregation. Issues addressed are the definition of poverty in terms of the characteristics of food commodities, identifying the poor directly or according to income, the definition of family size in terms of equivalent adults, and poverty gaps, and relative deprivation. The last part of the chapter gives a critique of standard poverty measurements.
Keywords: aggregation, deprivation, family size, food quality, identification, income, measurement, poverty, poverty gaps