Center for Global Development’s “Views from the Center”: Chart of the Week #4: Angus Deaton and the Location of Poverty
Charles Kenny, director of technology and development and senior fellow at CGD, and Justin Sandefur, senior fellow at CGD, examine Angus Deaton’s recent op-ed in the New York Times on the depth of poverty in the U.S. The authors write, “[I]n comparing U.S. poverty to poverty in developing countries, we think he’s got his numbers wrong. In short, the Nobel laureate’s recent claim that 5.3 million Americans live below the World Bank’s absolute poverty line — and thus foreign aid should be redirected back home — compares income data for the U.S. to consumption data from developing countries. Comparing like with like suggests a very different picture…” (1/26).