Factors influencing the comparability of poverty estimates across household surveys. Issue 2 (3rd March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yu, Derek
• Is Part Of: Development Southern Africa. Volume 33:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 145
• Page End: 165
• Publication Date: 2016-03-03
• Subjects: poverty -- income -- expenditure -- recall method -- diary method -- sequential regression multiple imputation; I32; Economic development -- Africa, Southern -- Periodicals; Africa, Southern -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 338.90096805
• DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2015.1120646
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0376-835X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The South African existing literature on poverty mainly adopted the money-metric approach to examine poverty levels and trends since the advent of democracy. In general, poverty increased until the end of the 1990s, before a downward trend took place. Despite the robust findings on the trends, poverty levels differed because of various reasons, ranging from the use of different poverty lines across the studies, to the adoption of different approaches to collect the income and expenditure information, and the presence of a high proportion of households reporting zero or unspecified income. This article aims to fill the existing research gap by explaining the possible factors accounting for the contrasting poverty levels across the eight commonly used South African censuses and household surveys between 1993 and 2012.