Free market think tank proposes new poverty measures

Measures of poverty should be decoupled from average earnings, argues Kristian Niemietz in a new monograph, A New Understanding of Poverty, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). Niemietz argues that one perverse result of such relative poverty measures among many is that poverty often declines in a serious recession when the better paid lose their jobs. The author proposes an entirely new way of measuring poverty and argues that if this measure were applied, public policy would orientate itself towards creating the conditions that allowed the poor to become better off. The book can be purchased from the IEA.

See also:
The review of A New Understanding of Poverty by Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack.

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