Poverty assessment through income measures

Abstract

This chapter discusses three approaches to conceptualisation and measurement of poverty, all revolving around the measurement of monetary incomes. In the previous chapter, we made brief comparisons among these approaches, as well as comparison between these income measures of poverty and the broader, less conventional social and historical approaches to poverty assessment. We now turn to a more detailed review of each of the income approaches, saving the social and historical analysis for the next chapter. In order to make the analysis concrete, empirical observations from Costa Rica, centring in metropolitan San Jose, are used illustratively throughout.