Setting a poverty line for Iraq

In this paper we illustrate how the cost-of-basic-need method was used to estimate a poverty line on the basis of the 2007 Iraq Household Socio-Economic Survey. The task of constructing a poverty line for Iraq is complicated by the presence of the Public Distribution System, probably the largest food-based transfer program operating anywhere in the world today. Rations are currently supplied to more than 30 million Iraqi beneficiaries. That notwithstanding, according to the estimated poverty line we find that 23 percent of the Iraqi population is classified as poor