Thursday, August 30, 2012

What, how and why of GPM!

A benchmark index to measure relative well being of income classes
 
Wish to know where you stand in your profession with respect to your global peers? Global Poverty Multiple (GPM, visit www.globalpovertymultiple.org) is an internationally comparable ratio developed by IIPM Think Tank in collaboration with B&E presents a comparative picture of the standing of various income receiving classes of a nation against the poverty line income (the latter decided by the nation and/or by international organisations).

GPM is a globally portable ratio that, on one hand, is easy to calculate, and on the other hand, presents a very clear and comprehensive comparative picture of economic well being of various income-receiving classes of countries across the globe. There are many globally accepted indices with a similar intention. GPM does not take life expectancy or literacy rate into consideration. It divides the population into various income-receiving classes and compares their annual per-capita income with the standard poverty line income. Since GPM is a ratio (per capita income/poverty line income), a GPM of “1” of an income receiving class indicates that his income is just on the poverty line, he is neither better off nor worse off. The higher the multiple, the better the economic well being of the particular income receiving class. GPM therefore further allows an inter-country comparison of economic well being of people in different professions by using the poverty line income as the base for comparison. Comparably, the PPP method and the GPM method are quite similar due to the fact that inter-country comparisons become easier.