one-for-one

[Nehir]

They "argue...that the income per capita in the poorest quintile rises one-for-one with overall per capita growth, and that the standart policies advocated by the IMF...promote the growth that is good for the poor"
(Social democracy in the global periphery)

As per capita growth rises, income per capita rises too, okay, but what does one-for-one mean?

 

[daviesri]

It is comparing "income per capita growth" with "overall per capita growth". The one-to-one means for every unit increase in one there is a matching increase in the other.

 

[AlabamaBoy]

But what is the unit?

To me "one-for-one with" is incorrectly used here. I would have said "in direct proportion to" since we are not really talking about countable quantities, but rather the more abstract idea of income. Yes, you could measure it in dollars or euros, but that is not the intended meaning here. (Poor people do not get one dollar more for each dollar more that the average person gets.)

The meaning should be something like this example.
Guns are being traded on a one-for-one basis with packets of food.
That means one gun is always traded for one packet of food.

The example is a little strange, but it should give the idea.

In the above sentence, we really mean that a 10% increase in the per capita income, all else equal, equates to a 10% increase in income for the poorest citizens.

 

[Nehir]

Thank you so much