1. Constructing a new measure of poverty for the UK
- Author
-
Niemietz, Kristian
- Subjects
339.4 - Abstract
This thesis will present a theoretical case for a new indicator of poverty, and construct a specific version of this indicator for the UK. It will calculate the actual poverty line, analyse its components, and discuss its implications. The thesis will begin by demonstrating that the outcomes of poverty studies are highly sensitive to the choice the indicator. It will document the history of poverty measurement in the UK, concentrating on the interaction of theory and measurement in different periods. Since current poverty indicators are not strongly connected to the underlying living standards, this thesis will also provide a new account of how living standards of the least well-off have evolved over the past decades, concentrating especially on recent research findings on measurement issues in this field. This documentation prepares the ground for the actual poverty indicator to be constructed in later chapters. The thesis will proceed to a discussion of the macroeconomic policy implications following from different poverty definitions, integrating the poverty literature into the wider economic literature. This step will identify the existence of problematic trade-offs in poverty policies, providing a case for scrutinising poverty indicators more carefully for their robustness and plausibility. It will move on to perform a ‘robustness test’ on existing measures, and highlight their shortcomings. The critique of existing measures will then be turned into a blueprint for the construction of an alternative measure. This measure will then be constructed with data from a variety of sources. Its results will be presented, and its implications discussed.
- Published
- 2014