HOW ROBUST IS A POVERTY PROFILE

Comparisons of poverty, such as where or when poverty is greatest, typically matter far more for policy choices than do aggregate measures of poverty, such as how many people are deemed poor. We examine alternative methods for constructing poverty profiles, focusing on their internal consistency and appropriateness for guiding policy. None is perfect, but some methods appear to be preferable to others when the aim is to inform policies for fighting absolute-consumption poverty. A case study on Indonesia reveals that the country's regional and sectoral poverty profile is highly sensitive to some aspects of measurement but quite robust to others.