We analyze the performance of kernel density methods applied to grouped data to estimate poverty (as applied in Sala-i-Martin, 2006, QJE). Using Monte Carlo simulations and household surveys, we find that the technique gives rise to biases in poverty estimates, the sign and magnitude of which...

Grouped data have been widely used to analyze the global income distribution because individual records from nationally representative household surveys are often unavailable. In this paper we evaluate the performance of nonparametric density smoothing techniques, in particular kernel density...

Current estimates of global poverty vary substantially across studies. In this paper we undertake a novel sensitivity analysis to highlight the importance of methodological choices in estimating global poverty. We measure global poverty using different data sources, parametric and nonparametric...

We analyze the performance of kernel density methods applied to grouped data to estimate poverty (as applied in Sala-i-Martin, 2006, QJE). Using Monte Carlo simulations and household surveys, we find that the technique gives rise to biases in poverty estimates, the sign and magnitude of which...

Kernel density estimation (KDE) has been prominently used to measure poverty from grouped data (Sala-i-Martin, 2006, QJE). In this paper we analyze the performance of this method. Using Monte Carlo simulations for plausible income distributions and unit data from several household surveys, we...

Grouped data have been widely used to analyze the global income distribution because individual records from nationally representative household surveys are often unavailable. In this paper we evaluate the performance of nonparametric density smoothing techniques, in particular kernel density...