The Measurement of Subsistence Level in Iran s Urban and Rural Households During 1989-2013

Poverty is an economic and social undesirable phenomenon and one of the important causes of poverty is injustice income distribution among the people. The governments should perform the suitable policies for eradication of poverty in any societies. In this study, the poverty line of Iran's urban and rural households are estimated by the theory of relative habit of formation linear expenditure system (RHLES) and by using data of household's expenditure for 8 commodity-groups over the periods of 1389-2013. Then, the position of poverty in urban and rural regions is calculated by the indicators of head-count ratio, poverty gap and Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT). The results of study show although the poverty line (minimum subsistence quantity) in Iran's urban and rural households has had an average growth about 20 percent, but the quantity of poverty indices are reduced during the five economic development plans. Thus, the government policies for the reduction of relative poverty in urban and rural regions have been successful.