This paper compares on empirical grounds various poverty indices that have been proposed in the theoretical literature. I have calculated several poverty indices for Italy over the time period 1991-1997 using data from the Bank of Italy survey of Italian households. A particular attention has been devoted to the choice between consumption and income as indicator of poverty; and to the use of different equivalence scales to account for differences in family sizes. I find that most indices display the same qualitative pattern over the time period considered, although there are some minor differences that suggest that on other data sets the choice of the poverty index may matter.

Barbara Galliani, in "ECONOMIA PUBBLICA " 3/2001, pp. , DOI: