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Should I use national or global poverty lines?

If you are interested in a particular country, you should use national poverty lines which are defined according to each country’s specific economic and social circumstances. The national poverty lines are typically lower in poorer countries and higher in richer countries.

If you are interested in comparing poverty across countries, you should use global poverty lines. The global poverty lines attempt to hold the real value of the poverty lines consistent across countries by accounting for differences in purchasing power across countries.

For additional details about global poverty lines, see Jolliffe and al. (2022).

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