POVERTY AND HOUSEHOLD SIZE

The widely held view that larger families tend to be poorer in develop ing countries has influenced research and policy. The scope for size e conomies in consumption cautions against this view. We find that the c orrelation between poverty and size vanishes in Pakistan when the size elasticity of the cost of living is about 0.6. This turns out to be t he elasticity implied by a modified version of the food share method o f setting scales. By contrast, some measures of child nutritional stat us indicate an elasticity of unify. Consideration of the weight attach ed to child versus adult welfare may help resolve the non-robustness o f demographic profiles of poverty.