Atkinson and Bourguignon's Dominance Criteria: Extended and Applied to the Measurement of Poverty in France

The authors demonstrate that the criteria put forward by A. B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon (1987) can be satisfactorily applied to the analysis of poverty even when the demographic composition of society and the definition of poverty change over time. They show that they provide both sufficient and necessary conditions for any robust conclusions concerning the changes in welfare and poverty. The authors apply these criteria to a set of data tracking annual income distribution movements in France from 1977 to 1994. The Atkinson and Bourguignon criteria posit that recent changes in poverty are a function of macroeconomic fluctuations in activity. Copyright 1998 by The International Association for Research in Income and Wealth.

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