On a class of poverty measures based on weighted poverty gaps

Abstract

We consider a class of poverty measures based on ranks that generalizes, among other measures, the class of linear indices discussed by Hagenaars (1987) and the class of equally distributed equivalent (EDE) poverty gaps considered by Duclos and Gregoire (2002). This class, introduced by Sordo, Ramos and Ramos (2007), is closely related to the TIP (Three I's of poverty) curve, a graphical device used to describe distributional poverty (Jenkins and Lambert, 1997). In this paper, we study the consistency of this class of measures with the most commonly accepted axioms for poverty measures and illustrate, with Spanish real data, the connection between stochastic dominance of TIP areas and orderings of income distributions according to these measures.