摘要：The estimates of the extent, distribution and trend of global income poverty provided in
the World Bank’s World Development Reports for 1990 and 2000/01 are neither meaningful
nor reliable. The Bank uses an arbitrary international poverty line unrelated to any
clear conception of what poverty is. It employs a misleading and inaccurate measure of
purchasing power «equivalence» that vitiates internacional and intertemporal comparisons
of income poverty. It extrapolates incorrectly from limited data and thereby creates an
appearance of precision that masks the high probable error of its estimates
关键词：estimates of global poverty, poverty line, trend of poverty, World Bank
