How Many Poor People in Shanghai Today? The Question of Poverty and Poverty Measure

Abstract

This paper identifies a wide incidence of poverty in Shanghai using relative measures. It is estimated that 12 percent of the Shanghai population was poor in 1996, a figure which is far greater than that of official estimates. Two sets of objective social indicators are used to indicate the conditions for including a comparative component into the poverty measure. Despite the magnitude of poverty in Shanghai, the financial implications for its eradication amount to only 0.6 percent of the city’s gross domestic product.