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A Unique Tool for Analyzing Poverty

2002-12-23

Tracking poverty is no easy matter. More difficult is comparing how it has changed over time, across countries, or between socioeconomic groups. Harder still is figuring out if and how different public policies — trade reforms, taxation regimes, or the introduction of a social safety net, for instance — will increase or reduce poverty among various groups. That’s the job of economic modellers.

Modellers have various tools at their disposal to carry out the complex calculations needed to compare income distribution, for instance, or the impact of public expenditures. The results are usually shown in the form of graphs or curves. But, says Dr Abdelkrim Araar of the Centre de Recherche en Économie et en Finance Appliquées (CRÉFA) at Laval University in Québec, these tools are not designed to enable users to easily analyze social welfare. Charting gaps in welfare is particularly difficult, he says.

A special software program developed by Araar and his colleagues Jean-Yves Duclos and Carl Fortin of the CRÉFA facilitates the analysis and comparison of social welfare, inequality, poverty, and equity between groups with different standards of living. Called Distributive Analysis – Analyse Distributive (DAD), the software was developed specifically for this purpose, as part of the IDRC-supported Micro Impacts of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) program.

User-friendly, DAD uses menus to select variables and options. It can simultaneously load two databases — survey results, for instance — and carry out applications with one, or both. "DAD greatly facilitates researchers’ tasks," says Araar. "By importing survey data, you can produce graphs of various welfare indicators." Abdoulaye Diagne, leader of the MIMAP-Senegal team agrees. "This is very useful," he says. "Without this tool, you have to carry out innumerable calculations."

DAD 4.2 and a users’ guide are available, free of charge, at http://www.mimap.ecn.ulaval.ca. Online help is also available.

Michelle Hibler is a senior writer in IDRC’s Communications Division.

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