A Methodology for Estimating the Income Poverty
Line with Application to Sudan
Nagat A. Elmuluthum
Abstract:
This
paper develops a procedure for estimating an income poverty line with
application to Sudan. The methodology we propose here is based on the idea of
viability embodied in Jorgenson’s (1961) model of the development of a
backward economy which consists of only one sector, namely, agriculture. Using
GDP, we estimated a subsistence level of income necessary for food and non-food
consumption at the level of per capita gross domestic product necessary for the
population to grow at a maximum (and not the maximum) rate. The estimated
subsistence level of income is used as synonymous with the income poverty line
estimated on the basis of the ordinary approach. Our results show that the
nominal value of this subsistence income is increasing from one year to another.
The values of the estimated subsistence income are not significantly different
from the values of the income poverty lines obtained by Ali (1994), using the
ordinary approach, for a number of years.
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