THE POVERTY LINE

The income-poor population in any society is typically identified with reference to a poverty line. The evolution of monetary poverty lines in various concrete historical settings has been attended by several conceptual difficulties. This book reviews and critically interprets Indias poverty norms, the US Federal Governments poverty thresholds, and the World Banks international poverty lines. It is a short introduction to the analytics and politics underlying the poverty line—a subject shot through with controversy and disputation, not least because the line plays such a crucial role in determining the measured magnitude and trends of a societys poverty.