How Not to Count the Poor! — A Reply to Ravallion

We are grateful for Martin Ravallion’s detailed and sincere attempt to respond to our criticisms of the World Bank’s methodology for measuring global income poverty. However, in this reply to Ravallion, we show that his attempt to defend the World Bank’s methodology is unconvincing. It seriously misstates a number of our criticisms, responds inadequately to others, and fails altogether to mention still more. Although we would like to be able to accept the global estimates of severe income poverty the Bank has produced, we continue to find that they do not stand up to serious scrutiny, and regretfully hold to our recommendation that they cease to be used.