01262pab a2200145 454500008004000000100001800040245006900058260000900127300001600136362001000152520088700162650001201049700002101061773003401082180718b2006   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aPoggf, Thomas  aUnknown: extent, distribution and trend of global income poverty  c2006  ap.2241-247.  a3 Jun  aThe estimates of the extent, distribution and trend of global income poverty provided in the World Bank's World Development Reports for 1990 and 2000-01 are neither meaningful nor reliable. The Bank uses an arbitrary international poverty line unrelated to any clear conception of what poverty is. It employs a misleading and inaccurate measure of purchasing power "equivalence" that vitiates international and intertemporal comparisons of income poverty. It extrapolates incorrectly from limited data and thereby creates an appearance of precision that masks the high probable error of its estimates. The systematic distortion introduced by these three flaws is likely to lead to a large understatement of the extent of global income poverty and to an incorrect inference that it has declined. A new methodology of global poverty assessment is feasible and necessary. - Reproduced.  aPoverty  aReddy, Sanjay G.  aEconomic and Political Weekly