The issue of this book is how to define and measure poverty, in relatively rich countries, in a way which is valuable for policy-making. It looks at the identification of the poor to derive an index of poverty, and shows that poverty in developed countries cannot be measured using current income. Readers of this journal will be all too familiar with the questions which have bedevilled research on poverty ... This authoritative study makes a significant contribution to these and related questions ... This book should make a significant contribution to the analysis of poverty and social inequality. It offers a rigorous, ingenious and original contribution to some of the most stubborn methodological problems in recent poverty research ... For the 'professionals' in the poverty research business ... the book is, quite simply, essential reading.