Subjective poverty lines - based on the self-assessed adequacy of a family's food, housing, and clothing - accord closely on average with independent objective poverty lines. There are notable differences, however, when geographic and demographic poverty profiles are constructed. Pradhan and...

A standard method for calculation poverty lines (e.g. Ravallion, 1994) is not fully specified. The choice of the "reference population" for determining food baskets is left to the decision of the individual analyst. However, the poverty line can be quite sensitive to the real income of the...