Uniform weak convergence of poverty measures with relative poverty lines

This paper introduces a general continuous form of poverty index that encompasses most of the existing formulas in the literature. We then propose a consistent estimator for this index in case the poverty line is a functional of the distribution. We also establish a uniform functional Central Limit Theorem for the proposed estimator over a suitable product class of real-valued functions. As a consequence, testing procedures based either on single or simultaneously several poverty indices can be developed. A simulation study showing the asymptotic normality of the estimator is given as well as an application to real data for estimating the effect of relative poverty lines on the variance of the poverty estimates.