Income, Poverty and Prices: Comparisons at National and Sub-national Level: Editors’ Introduction

• Published in: Social indicators research 2017-03, Vol.131 (1), p.1-6
• Main Authors: Biggeri, Luigi, Rao, D. S. Prasada
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Consumer Price Index; Consumption; Cost Indexes; Cost of living; Cross cultural studies; Development banks; Economic statistics; Economics; Editing; Health services; Human Geography; Income; Inequality; International; International comparisons; Microeconomics; Political Issues; Poverty; Prices; Public Health; Purchasing power parity; Quality of Life Research; Regions; Researchers; Social exclusion; Social Sciences; Sociology; Standard of living
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1578-4

About half a century ago a small group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, headed by Professor Irving Kravis, started an ambitious research program to conduct international comparisons of prices and real incomes across countries. Their project, which started in 1970 with comparisons involving 10 countries, has grown into a major international statistical initiative known as the International Comparison Program (ICP). The ICP is currently a program under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission and conducted jointly by various regional organizations such as the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Eurostat, OECD, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Economic Commission for Latin American Countries (ECLAC). The ICP is coordinated by the Global Office located at the World Bank. The coverage of the ICP has expanded significantly over the last five decades and the program is now truly a global program which included 146 countries in its 2005 round and 199 countries in the 2011 round of the ICP.The ICP is undoubtedly the most reliable source of data on internationally comparable economic aggregates such as the purchasing power parities (PPPs) of currencies gross real domestic product (GDP), per capita consumption expenditure and investment. The most recent set of results for the year 2011 can be found in World Bank (2014). International comparison data generated by the ICP are used for many purposes including comparative assessment of economic performance of countries and regions; measurement of regional and global inequality and poverty; and for the purpose of cross-country comparisons of prices and living standards.