It is difficult to compare economies and poverty since different metrics can provide different outcomes. Olivier Sterck, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, has created a new metric for measuring poverty that he refers to as “average poverty.”
Average poverty is substantially higher in the US, even though average incomes are higher than in most Western European countries,” he concludes. A startling conclusion can be drawn from comparing the GDP per capita of the US with Europe: the poorest US state is on par with Germany.
Mississippi, the poorest state in the union, had a GDP per capita of €49,780 ($53,872) in the third quarter of 2024. In 2024, it was €51,304 in Germany, a mere €1,500 difference.
Olivier Sterck emphasizes that the debate is altered when poverty is seen as a continuum. It makes clear what poverty boundaries overlook and the significance of inequality. The average time required to earn $1 is the definition of “average poverty,” according to Sterck’s research, which was published on SSRN, an online repository for scholarly work. According to him, “the measure is inclusive, distribution-sensitive, decomposable, and aligns with how both experts and the public conceptualize poverty.
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