This paper decomposes differences between the official poverty estimates of Malawi
and a set of revised estimates by Pauw et al. (2016, forthcoming) with respect to five
methodological differences: (i) the use of a revised set of unit conversion factors; (ii) the
specification and use of regional poverty lines as opposed to a single national poverty line; (iii)
the use of implicit survey-based prices rather than external price data; (iv) estimation of food
separate poverty lines in the two surveys; and (v) permitting a change in the food/non-food
composition of the consumption basket over time. Our results suggest that the decline in
national poverty varies between 3.4 and 8.4 percentage points, compared to the official estimate
of a decline of 1.8 percentage points.