A Methodology for Estimating the Income Poverty Line with Application to Sudan

Abstract

This paper develops a procedure for estimating an income poverty line with application to Sudan. The methodology we propose here is based on the idea of viability embodied in Jorgenson’s (1961) model of the development of a backward economy which consists of only one sector, namely, agriculture. Using GDP, we estimated a subsistence level of income necessary for food and non-food consumption at the level of per capita gross domestic product necessary for the population to grow at a maximum (and not the maximum) rate. The estimated subsistence level of income is used as synonymous with the income poverty line estimated on the basis of the ordinary approach. Our results show that the nominal value of this subsistence income is increasing from one year to another. The values of the estimated subsistence income are not significantly different from the values of the income poverty lines obtained by Ali (1994), using the ordinary approach, for a number of years.