When measuring poverty in developed countries, the poverty line used to identify the poor is usually relative and set as a percentage of the median (or of the mean) of the total income. In consequence, when poverty is analyzed over a period of time, changes in the poverty level depend on the impact of evolving standards. To eliminate this effect, sometimes, an anchored poverty line is used. Furthermore, changes in the mean of the distribution and in the inequality among the poor may also affect the poverty levels. This note proposes a decomposition of the changes in poverty as the sum of four terms. The first two reflect the impact in poverty of changes in living standards and the other two measure the effect of the distributional growth and redistribution. This decomposition will help policymakers in the implementation of a more specific antipoverty agenda. An application with data from the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions shows the potential of the decomposition proposed.

中文翻译：

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分解贫困变化：贫困线和分配效应

在衡量发达国家的贫困时，用于识别贫困人口的贫困线通常是相对的，并设定为总收入中位数（或平均数）的百分比。因此，当分析一段时期内的贫困时，贫困水平的变化取决于不断变化的标准的影响。为了消除这种影响，有时会使用固定贫困线。此外，分配平均值的变化和穷人之间的不平等也可能影响贫困水平。本说明建议将贫困变化分解为四项之和。前两项反映生活水平变化对贫困的影响，另外两项衡量分配增长和再分配的影响。这种分解将有助于政策制定者实施更具体的反贫困议程。欧盟收入和生活条件调查数据的应用显示了拟议分解的潜力。