| The International Wealth Index (IWI) |
| Authors: |
Jeroen Smits, and Roel Steendijk |
| Source: |
Social Indicators Research, 122(1): 65–85; DOI: 10.1007/s11205-014-0683-x |
| Topic(s): |
Poverty
Wealth Index
|
| Country: |
More than one region
Multiple Regions
|
| Published: |
MAY 2014 |
| Abstract: |
This paper presents the International Wealth Index (IWI), the first comparable
asset based index of household’s material well-being, or economic status, that can be used for
all low and middle income countries. IWI is similar to the widely used wealth indices
included in the Demographic and Health Surveys and UNICEF MICS surveys, but adds the
property of comparability across place and time. IWI is based on data from 2.1 million
households in 97 developing countries. With IWI we provide a stable and understandable
yardstick for evaluating and comparing the situation of households, social groups and
societies among all regions of the developing world. A household’s ranking on IWI indicates
to what extent the household possesses a basic set of assets, valued highly by people across
the globe. IWI is tested thoroughly and turns out to be a stable index that hardly depends on
the inclusion of specific items or on data for specific regions or time periods. National IWI
values are highly correlated with human development, life expectancy, and national income,
and IWI-based poverty measures with poverty headcount ratios.
Keywords Comparable wealth index Assets Developing world Material well-being
Welfare measurement Poverty measurement |
|