PARAMETRIC EQUIVALENCE SCALES AND SCALE RELATIVITIES

We respond to Banks and Johnson's (1994) Comment on Coulter et al. (19 92) drawing on a more general discussion of parametric equivalence sca le and scale relativity issues and new empirical results. We show that criticisms of our earlier work are unfounded. When the McClements sca le is properly characterised, the scale does indeed provide lower esti mates of poverty and inequality levels than most other scales. We reit erate our conclusion that relationships between scale relativities and inequality and poverty indices may be index-specific. Moreover the pi cture about distributional trends may differ from that about levels.