In estimating the incident of global poverty, both contemporarily and historically, one needs to reach far into the domain of assumptions and second best approaches. This paper navigates through this methodological jungle. This discussion of the literature, although extensive is not exhaustive,...

Our appreciation of global poverty almost exclusively relies on the official statistics published by the World Bank. Yet, these official global poverty estimates, based on the standard dollar-a-day approach, fall short in their prime objective of observing a constant standard of living across...

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) exchange rates work appreciatively for comparing economies across the globe, instead of the standard market exchange rates. PPPs come closer to represent the relative size of the economies because they correct for non-tradeables that are relatively cheaper in less...

This paper analyses elite incomes around the world, and how international comparisons of elite incomes vary depending on the exchange rate and income concept used. It is well known that between-country income inequality is higher using market exchange rates than purchasing power parity (PPP)...

We analyze the evolution of aggregate household wealth, its composition, and top wealth shares since the mid-19th century for the Netherlands, a country which played a significant role in economic history. The main forces at play are the size and variation of colonial wealth up until WWII, and...

This paper analyses elite incomes around the world, and how international comparisons of elite incomes vary depending on the exchange rate and income concept used. It is well known that between-country income inequality is higher using market exchange rates than purchasing power parity (PPP)...