Zheng Measures Extent of Poverty
Valid information on levels of poverty and inequality is crucial when drafting effective antipoverty policies. Economics Professor Buhong Zheng has researched what works and what falls short when analyzing these important issues.
“The standard measure of poverty—simply counting the number of poor—is crude in the sense that it does not consider how far a poor individual falls below the poverty line,” he explains. “I realized that there was new literature devoted to the measurement of poverty, and I could make some significant contributions to the literature.”
Since joining the university in 1995, Zheng has maintained a rigorous research agenda. He has published 16 solo-authored and 19 co-authored research papers in economics journals and research volumes. His work has become so notable that a poverty measure he introduced in 2000 has been referred to as the Zheng Poverty Index by fellow researchers.
Zheng also has been chosen co-editor of two highly regarded journals in the growing field of social welfare and inequality: Social Choice and Welfare and the Journal of Economic Inequality. His work is referenced by the most influential authors in the field, including Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen.
His research also benefits his students. “My students get to see how what they learned can relate to the issues that I have been working on,” he says. For example, in Zheng’s statistics class, students learn how various U.S. official income statistics are computed and how to draw robust conclusions with the statistical tools he has derived. “This helps students to move beyond the textbook and learn to properly use statistics in their future work.”