Robustness of Shared Prosperity Estimates: How Different Methodological Choices Matter

28 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Aziz Atamanov

Aziz Atamanov

World Bank

Christina Wieser

World Bank

Hiroki Uematsu

World Bank

Nobuo Yoshida

World Bank

Minh Nguyen

World Bank

João Pedro Azevedo

World Bank

Reno Dewina

World Bank - Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PRMVP)

Date Written: March 18, 2016

Abstract

This paper is the first to systematically test the robustness of shared prosperity estimates to different methodological choices using a sample of countries from all regions in the world. The tests that are conducted include grouped versus microdata, nominal welfare aggregate versus adjustment for spatial price variation, and different treatment of income with negative and zero values. The empirical results reveal an only minimal impact of the proposed tests on shared prosperity estimates. Nevertheless, there are important caveats. First, spatial adjustment can change the ranking of households, affecting the distribution of the population in the bottom 40 percent. Second, the negligible impact of spatial deflation holds only if price adjustments are carried out consistently over time. Finally, the treatment of negative and zero income numbers can potentially lead to substantial differences in shared prosperity, depending on the magnitude of negative income and the share of households with negative and zero numbers across years.

Keywords: Poverty Impact Evaluation, Poverty Monitoring & Analysis, Poverty Assessment, Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping, Poverty Diagnostics, Poverty Lines

Suggested Citation

Atamanov, Aziz and Wieser, Christina and Uematsu, Hiroki and Yoshida, Nobuo and Nguyen, Minh and Wagner de Azevedo, João Pedro and Dewina, Reno, Robustness of Shared Prosperity Estimates: How Different Methodological Choices Matter (March 18, 2016). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7611, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2750207

Aziz Atamanov (Contact Author)

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Christina Wieser

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Hiroki Uematsu

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Nobuo Yoshida

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Minh Nguyen

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

João Pedro Wagner de Azevedo

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Reno Dewina

World Bank - Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PRMVP) ( email )

Washington, DC 20433
United States

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