The General Poverty Index

Abstract

We introduce the General Poverty Index (GPI), which summarizes most of the known and available poverty indices, in the form {equation*} GPI=\delta (\frac{A(Q_{n},n,Z)}{nB(Q,n)}\overset{Q_{n}}{\underset{j=1}{\sum}%}w(\mu_{1}n+\mu_{2}Q_{n}-\mu_{3}j+\mu_{4})d(\frac{Z-Y_{j,n}}{Z}%)),{equation*} where {equation*} B(Q_{n},n)=\sum_{j=1}^{Q}w(j), {equation*} $A(\cdot),$ $w(\cdot),and$ $d(\cdot) $\ are given measurable functions, $Q_{n}$ is the number of the poor in the sample, Z is the poverty line and $Y_{1,n}\leq Y_{2,n}\leq ...\leq Y_{n,n}$\ are the ordered sampled incomes or expenditures of the individuals or households. We show here how the available indices based on the poverty gaps are derived from it. The asymptotic normality is then established and particularized for the usual poverty measures for immediate applications to poor countries data.