New approach to poverty lines could reshape how we measure deprivation.
The article discusses how to measure poverty by choosing between absolute and relative poverty lines. By looking at different aspects of poverty and deprivation, researchers suggest using the income elasticity of these factors to set the poverty line. Data from Irish surveys indicate an upper limit of 0.7 for this parameter. Different poverty measures were calculated using various values for the income elasticity, and statistical tests were used to see if the differences were significant.