Measuring trends in poverty over time - some robust results for Ireland 1980-87

Abstract

The trend in poverty in Ireland between 1980 and 1987 is analysed, using the 1980 Household Budget Survey and the ESRI 1987 Survey of Income, Distribution, Poverty and Usage of State Services. In addition to the number falling below poverty thresholds, more sophisticated aggregate poverty measures are derived, taking into account the extent to which the poor fall below the poverty line and the distribution of income among the poor. Results for the trend in poverty which are robust over a range of relative poverty lines and equivalence scales are found: these measures show an unambiguous increase in poverty between 1980 and 1987. This illustrates the value of explicitly acknowledging the difficulties in specifying a particular poverty line: results holding across a range of thresholds carry great weight.