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Australian Poverty Quantified by a Family‐Based Poverty Index *
Author(s) -
JOHNSON DAVID T.,
DIXON PETER B.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1999.tb02439.x
Subject(s) - poverty , index (typography) , axiom , individualism , economics , econometrics , distribution (mathematics) , demographic economics , monotonic function , sensitivity (control systems) , mathematics , economic growth , computer science , market economy , mathematical analysis , geometry , electronic engineering , world wide web , engineering
We postulate a family‐based poverty index (JD) possessing focus, symmetry, monotonicity and decomposability properties commonly required of individualistic indexes. JD also satisfies reformulated distribution and transfer sensitivity axioms which take account of differences between families in their sizes and poverty lines. We introduce a new axiom, substitution sensitivity, which is satisfied by JD but not by the well‐known FGT index. Using JD, we describe Australian poverty in the 1980s. We find that head‐count ratios and average income gaps dominate the explanation of differences in poverty across family types and across time. Differences in the distributions of poor incomes make minor contributions.