A note on the Bourguignon-Fields class of poverty indices

Current poverty measurement methodology does not allow a definitive analysis of changes in distribution, through time or between countries, which involve changes in the number or proportion of poor people. By revisiting the continuity and transfer axioms, we show that within the Bourguignon and Fields (1997) class of poverty indices a range of value judgements can be accommodated as to what happens (or should happen) in the case that poverty-line crossings result from regressive transfers. In exposing this, we hope to provide empirical analysts with wider scope to use the Bourguignon-Fields poverty indices in an informed way.Poverty measurement Regressive transfers