Working Paper: NBER ID: w29911
Authors: Pascaline Dupas; Marcel Fafchamps; Deivy Houeix
Abstract: We investigate a method for eliciting relative poverty rankings that aggregates partial poverty rankings obtained from multiple individuals. We first demonstrate that the method works in principle, then apply it in urban Côte d’Ivoire. We find that constructed rankings are often incomplete, not always transitive and sometimes contain cycles. Pairwise rankings reported by respondents and constructed aggregate rankings are poorly correlated with measures of poverty obtained from survey data. Measuring relative poverty through peer rankings appears difficult in urban and periurban settings.
Keywords: relative poverty; peer rankings; Cote d'Ivoire; poverty measurement
JEL Codes: D31; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| peer rankings (D79) | accuracy of poverty assessment (I32) |
| incomplete rankings (D52) | accuracy of poverty assessment (I32) |
| measurement errors (C20) | accuracy of poverty assessment (I32) |
| peer rankings (D79) | constructed rankings (Y10) |
| constructed rankings (Y10) | economic status of households (D12) |
| pairwise rankings (D79) | observational measures of poverty (I32) |
| self-rankings bias (D91) | accuracy of poverty assessment (I32) |