Assessment Paper
Post-2015 Consensus: Poverty Assessment, Gibson
How much does poverty cost? It is an easy question to ask but a surprisingly hard one to answer. Of the typical ways to measure poverty, only the poverty gap statistic – the average proportionate shortfall from the poverty line – can be interpreted in monetary terms. Assuming an all-knowing government making cost-free, perfectly targeted transfers to close poverty gaps, other researchers have calculated a global poverty gap of $82 billion at a $1.25 a day level of living. But this measure of the total cost of poverty ignores broader impacts on education, life expectancy etc.
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