This paper proposes techniques to test for whether growth has been pro-poor. We first review different definitions of pro-poorness and argue for the use of methods that can generate results that are robust over classes of pro-poor measures and ranges of poverty lines. We then provide statistical...

This paper extends familiar results on the optimal pricing of publicly provided goods and price cap regulations in a stochastic dominance framework. The key advantage is that the assessment as to whether pricing or price cap reforms are poverty reducing or welfare improving is not contingent on...

A method is proposed to provide robust poverty comparisons and robust evaluations of marginal policy reforms under income variability. Given that a household’s certainty equivalent income depends on both expected income and income variability, stochastic dominance tests are developed in order...

We propose simple graphical methods to identify poverty-reducing marginal reforms of transfer programs. The methods are based on Program Dominance curves that display cumulative program benefits weighted by powers of poverty gaps. These curves can be decomposed simply as sums of targeting...

The poverty impact of indirect tax reforms is analyzed using sequential stochastic dominance methods. This allows agents to differ in dimensions that cannot always be precisely captured within the usual money-metric indicators of living standards. Examples of such dimensions include household...

This paper develops criteria for a new concept of restricted inequality dominance and show how they relate to criteria for comparing relative poverty. The results warn against the use of some popular indices of inequality.\ They do, however, suggest an interesting extension of the Schutz...

This paper proposes graphical methods to determine whether commodity-tax changes are socially improving , in the sense of improving social welfare or decreasing poverty for large classes of social welfare and poverty indices. It also derives estimators of critical poverty lines and economic...

The evaluation of the poverty impact and targeting performance of a given social program may depend on how other programs are treated in the analysis.Using well-known results from cooperative game theory, this paper proposes an empirically simple yet theoretically sound method for allocating...

The evaluation of the impact on poverty of social programs depends on how other programs are treated in the analysis and on the assumptions used for estimating poverty measures. This paper applies a simple yet sound method for allocating between various programs the total poverty reduction...

In this article, we analyze how various historical modifications to welfare and old age pensions programs have affected poverty in Canada.