Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to practice working with quantitative data to calculate
measures of poverty and inequality and make judgments about the patterns that you
observe in these development indicators.
Course Learning Outcomes
CLO1 Calculate basic measures of poverty and inequality
CLO5 Use economic models and empirical methods to evaluate development policy
Skills
The purpose of this assignment is to practice the following skills that are essential to
your success in analyzing the ways in which development programs impact poverty:
●
●
●
analysis
Knowledge
This assignment will require you to be familiar with the following course content:
●
●
●
Task
To complete this assignment, you will:
1.
(Word file).
Case.
poverty, both overall and for particular sub-groups of the population. You will work
with the data for the level of household consumption expenditure from a
representative household survey of the population of Guatemala. Your task is to
characterize poverty in Guatemala, with particular emphasis on heterogeneity
between rural/urban populations. You have an Excel table that provides the annual
household consumption expenditure per capita, denominated in US dollars for the
year 2000. I have aggregated the data for you to each percentile, ranked by
consumption level from lowest to highest. Data are for three population groups: the
whole population and the urban and rural populations. The poverty line is provided in
an additional column.
2.
consider adding your surname to the file title). The following steps will guide the
analysis that you need to complete in your Excel data set as well as generating the
numbers you need to add to your report. Once you are done with your data analysis,
you will write a brief narrative on the findings in your report.
2
3.
which you can fill in following information. You will transfer most of this information
into your Word report. Each correct answer is worth 2 points.
3.1
(2 pt.)
3.2
overall and in each of the two sub-groups. (2 pt.)
3.3
3.4
what is the contribution to P0 made by each subgroup. (2 pt.)
3.5
the poverty gap (i.e., the expenditure deficit to reach the poverty line) for
each household in poverty overall and in each sub-group. (2 pt.)
3.6
4.
each population group and an allocation of welfare to different groups by answering
the questions below.
4.1
4.2
group by summing the poverty gaps in each percentile. (2 pt.)
4.3
budget needed to eliminate poverty across all poverty groups. (2 pt.)
4.4
would be required to eliminate poverty. (2 pt.)
5.
5.1
of inequality: the Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient, and the Kuznets ratio. (2
pt.)
5.2
5.3
enter your results in the table in your Word report:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
6.
story that you see in these data. Describe the pattern of poverty and inequality in
Guatemala, offer an explanation of the pattern of poverty and inequality, and
suggest what your explanation implies for development policy in Guatemala. You
don’t need to address all the measures that you calculated in your narrative. At the
3
same time, these measures, by themselves, may not provide you with enough
information to tell a story and you may need to draw on sources that enrich your
understanding of the Guatemalan context. (18 pt.)
The purpose of this assignment is to practice working with quantitative data to calculate
measures of poverty and inequality and make judgments about the patterns that you
observe in these development indicators.
Course Learning Outcomes
CLO1 Calculate basic measures of poverty and inequality
CLO5 Use economic models and empirical methods to evaluate development policy
Skills
The purpose of this assignment is to practice the following skills that are essential to
your success in analyzing the ways in which development programs impact poverty:
●
●
●
analysis
Knowledge
This assignment will require you to be familiar with the following course content:
●
●
●
Task
To complete this assignment, you will:
1.
(Word file).
Case.
poverty, both overall and for particular sub-groups of the population. You will work
with the data for the level of household consumption expenditure from a
representative household survey of the population of Guatemala. Your task is to
characterize poverty in Guatemala, with particular emphasis on heterogeneity
between rural/urban populations. You have an Excel table that provides the annual
household consumption expenditure per capita, denominated in US dollars for the
year 2000. I have aggregated the data for you to each percentile, ranked by
consumption level from lowest to highest. Data are for three population groups: the
whole population and the urban and rural populations. The poverty line is provided in
an additional column.
2.
consider adding your surname to the file title). The following steps will guide the
analysis that you need to complete in your Excel data set as well as generating the
numbers you need to add to your report. Once you are done with your data analysis,
you will write a brief narrative on the findings in your report.
2
3.
which you can fill in following information. You will transfer most of this information
into your Word report. Each correct answer is worth 2 points.
3.1
(2 pt.)
3.2
overall and in each of the two sub-groups. (2 pt.)
3.3
3.4
what is the contribution to P0 made by each subgroup. (2 pt.)
3.5
the poverty gap (i.e., the expenditure deficit to reach the poverty line) for
each household in poverty overall and in each sub-group. (2 pt.)
3.6
4.
each population group and an allocation of welfare to different groups by answering
the questions below.
4.1
4.2
group by summing the poverty gaps in each percentile. (2 pt.)
4.3
budget needed to eliminate poverty across all poverty groups. (2 pt.)
4.4
would be required to eliminate poverty. (2 pt.)
5.
5.1
of inequality: the Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient, and the Kuznets ratio. (2
pt.)
5.2
5.3
enter your results in the table in your Word report:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
6.
story that you see in these data. Describe the pattern of poverty and inequality in
Guatemala, offer an explanation of the pattern of poverty and inequality, and
suggest what your explanation implies for development policy in Guatemala. You
don’t need to address all the measures that you calculated in your narrative. At the
3
same time, these measures, by themselves, may not provide you with enough
information to tell a story and you may need to draw on sources that enrich your
understanding of the Guatemalan context. (18 pt.)
