Modifying the national poverty line to the context of observed consumption patterns of the poor is becoming popular. A … context-specific poverty line would be more consistent with preferences. This paper provides theoretical and empirical … evidence that the contrary holds and that the national poverty line is more appropriate for comparing living standards among …

nationally representative household survey on poverty dynamics; (ii) to assess the robustness and reliability of official poverty … statistics; and (iii) to provide alternative estimates of poverty and welfare indicators in light of the methodological and … poverty-rate estimates: measurement errors in consumption data and flaws in the methodology used to calculate poverty lines …