An Axiomatic Approach to the Measurementof Poverty Reduction Failure

A poverty reduction failure index is a measure of the extent of inability of a society to reduce its poverty level. This paper develops an ordering for ranking alternative income distributions in terms of poverty reduction failures. The ordering can be easily implemented using the generalized Lorenz or the Three I’s of poverty (TIP) curve dominance criterion. We also characterize an existing index of poverty reduction failure using an axiomatic structure.