The Performance of a Consumption Augmented Asset Index in Ranking Households and Identifying the Poor

Ngo, Diana ; Christiaensen, Luc

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ASSET INDEX;    POVERTY LINE;    POVERTY MEASUREMENT;    HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION;    CONSUMPTION PROXY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8362
RP-ID  :  WPS8362

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Asset ownership indices are widely usedas inexpensive proxies for consumption. This paper showsthat these indices can be augmented using dichotomousindicators for consumption, which are equally easy toobtain. The paper uses multiple rounds of Living StandardsMeasurement Study surveys from Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda,Tanzania, and Ghana to construct indices with different itemsubcategories and performs a meta-analysis comparing theindices to per capita consumption. The results show that thestandard asset indices, which are derived from durableownership and housing characteristic indicators, performwell in urban settings. Yet, in rural samples and whenidentifying the extreme poor, household rankings and povertyclassification accuracy can be meaningfully improved byadding indicators of food and semi-durable consumption. Thestudy finds small improvement from using national weights inurban samples but no improvement from using alternativeconstruction methods. With most of Africa’s poorconcentrated in rural areas, these are important insights.