Author(s) Eugene Kouassi, Pierre Mendy, Diaraf Seck, Kern O. Kymn

ABSTRACT
In this paper, a new optimization-based approach to constructing a poverty index is considered. From a general perspective, first and second order conditions based on a general poverty intensity function are derived. Then using specific intensity functions defined by [1,3] respectively, we specify related necessary and sufficient conditions and the underlying poverty indices. An extension based on a large class of intensity function is also investigated.

KEYWORDS
A General Poverty Index, Necessary and Sufficient Conditions, Other Poverty Indices, Poverty Intensity Functions

Cite this paper
nullE. Kouassi, P. Mendy, D. Seck and K. Kymn, "Poverty Indices Revisited," Theoretical Economics Letters, Vol. 1 No. 3, 2011, pp. 129-133. doi: 10.4236/tel.2011.13027.

References
[1]   A. K. Sen, “Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement,” Econometrica, Vol. 44, No. 2, 1976, pp. 219-231. doi:10.2307/1912718

[2]   J. Foster, J. Greer and E. Thorbecke, “A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures,” Econometrica, Vol. 52, No. 3, 1994, pp. 761-765. doi:10.2307/1913475

[3]   A. F. Shorrocks, “Revisiting the Sen Poverty Index,” Econometrica, Vol. 63, No. 5, 1995, pp. 1225-1230. doi:10.2307/2171728