Lecture

What is Poverty: Metrics and Indices

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture explores various metrics and indices used to measure poverty, including monetary metrics like GDP per capita, income inequality measured by the GINI index, non-monetary metrics such as health and education indicators, composite metrics like the Human Development Index, and the role of innovation and technology in poverty reduction.

In MOOC

Technology Innovation for Sustainable Development

Technology innovation can be a great enabler for development in low and middle-income countries. This course presents a methodology and an approach to develop impactful innovations that have the power to foster sustainable development. Whether you are from an industrialized or a developing country, whether you are employed in a company, an NGO, an international organization or a government. Whether you are an academic, an independent entrepreneur, or simply a passionate individual, this course is for you.

Official source

Quiz

Related concepts (32)

Poverty reduction

Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics classic Progress and Poverty, are those that raise, or are intended to raise, ways of enabling the poor to create wealth for themselves as a conduit of ending poverty forever. In modern times, various economists within the Georgism movement propose measures like the land value tax to enhance access to the natural world for all.

Poverty

Poverty is a state or condition in which one lacks the financial resources and essentials for a certain standard of living. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in statistics or economics there are two main measures: absolute poverty compares income against the amount needed to meet basic personal needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter; relative poverty measures when a person cannot meet a minimum level of living standards, compared to others in the same time and place.

Extreme poverty

Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services". Historically, other definitions have been proposed within the United Nations. In 2018, extreme poverty mainly refers to an income below the international poverty line of $1.

Per capita income

Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita income is national income divided by population size. Per capita income is often used to measure a sector's average income and compare the wealth of different populations. Per capita income is also often used to measure a country's standard of living.

Theories of poverty

Theories on the causes of poverty are the foundation upon which poverty reduction strategies are based. While in developed nations poverty is often seen as either a personal or a structural defect, in developing nations the issue of poverty is more profound due to the lack of governmental funds. Some theories on poverty in the developing world focus on cultural characteristics as a retardant of further development.

Related lectures (64)

Economic Growth and Happiness

Explores the link between economic growth and happiness, showing that life satisfaction does not always increase with higher income levels.

Need for Economic Growth in Low-Income Countries

Explores the need for economic growth in low-income countries, focusing on poverty reduction, inequality, and environmental impact.

The Importance of Economic Growth in Rich Countries

Delves into the reasons why rich countries prioritize economic growth and the challenges of public debt.

Global Poverty Trends

Analyzes global poverty trends, income distribution, the rise of the middle class, and the economic shift towards Asia.

Economic Growth in Wealthy Countries