Parallel Session IARIW 2014

1. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Chronic and Transient Poverty in Rural Ethiopia:
Response IARIW 2014 Session 4B
Natalie Na¨ıri Quinn
University of Oxford
26 August 2014

2. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Thank you!
Thank you for careful reading and detailed feedback!

3. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Thank you!
Thank you for careful reading and detailed feedback!
Many useful suggestions

4. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Thank you!
Thank you for careful reading and detailed feedback!
Many useful suggestions
Also highlights points that need clarification/emphasis. . .

5. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (1)
Better/worse vs more/less

6. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (1)
Better/worse vs more/less
Bossert et al. not invariant to permutations over time (other
issues)

7. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (1)
Better/worse vs more/less
Bossert et al. not invariant to permutations over time (other
issues)
Subset consistency is critical axiom for order of aggregation
(over time and then over people)

8. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (1)
Better/worse vs more/less
Bossert et al. not invariant to permutations over time (other
issues)
Subset consistency is critical axiom for order of aggregation
(over time and then over people)
The ‘chronicity’ function is p, not cp (which is
constant-wellbeing equivalent).
P(X) =
1
n(X)
n(X)
i=1
z − cp(p(xi1, xi2, . . . , xiT ))
z
2

9. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (2): Complicated/non-transparent measure
The challenge:
Contiguity (poverty is more ‘chronic’ if spells contiguous)
necessitates non-separable form!

10. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (2): Complicated/non-transparent measure
The challenge:
Contiguity (poverty is more ‘chronic’ if spells contiguous)
necessitates non-separable form!
So extremely difficult (impossible) to write simple analytic
expression for p.

11. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (2): Complicated/non-transparent measure
The challenge:
Contiguity (poverty is more ‘chronic’ if spells contiguous)
necessitates non-separable form!
So extremely difficult (impossible) to write simple analytic
expression for p.
Simplest non-separable form quadratic:
ˆp(x) = max 0, 1 −
1
2
1
T
x Ax
1/2
+
1
T
T
t=1
xt

12. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Clarifications (3): Complicated/non-transparent measure
Where:
A =









1 + β −β 0 · · · 0 0
−β 1 + 2β −β · · · 0 0
0 −β 1 + 2β · · · 0 0
...
...
...
...
...
...
0 0 0 · · · 1 + 2β −β
0 0 0 · · · −β 1 + β










13. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
The functions are actually not so different. . .
q
q
q
q
q
q
1 2 3 4 5 6
00.5zz1.5z
Constant Wellbeing Equivalents
Period
Wellbeing
p_inf
p_2
p_1

14. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Response to Comments (1)
Oversights/balance/other issues Thanks for raising! Will resolve.

15. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Response to Comments (1)
Oversights/balance/other issues Thanks for raising! Will resolve.
Social Aggregation
Not the focus of the paper.
Poverty gap worth exploring (similar results)
Indicator/headcount not well behaved!

16. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Response to Comments (1)
Oversights/balance/other issues Thanks for raising! Will resolve.
Social Aggregation
Not the focus of the paper.
Poverty gap worth exploring (similar results)
Indicator/headcount not well behaved!
The Measure
Characterisation: tautology vs ad-hoc
(indefensible) assumptions.
Lack of transparency: cannot be separable.
Quadratic form(!) – best attempt at
transparency.
Will review explanation/defence.

17. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Response to Comments (2)
Going beyond
Attrition/vary T/interval periods: Extension of
domain
Left- and right-censoring
Normative vs positive analysis

18. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Response to Comments (2)
Going beyond
Attrition/vary T/interval periods: Extension of
domain
Left- and right-censoring
Normative vs positive analysis
Poor vs rich country/Dataset?
My background – poor country, absolute
poverty.
Already complex! Avoid engaging with debate
on relative poverty?
But – extension straightforward if happy to
accept xit/zt as intertemporally-comparable
indicator of wellbeing.

19. Thank you!
Clarifications
Empirics: Why so similar to J-R?
Response to Comments
Response to Comments (3)
Empirics
Weight – methodological or empirical
contribution?
Comparisons with other approaches? Hmm.
Standard errors? Issue with this dataset
(sampling from what population?)
Bootstrapping not necessary.