in some countries these goods are partially provided by the state blurring the concept of the market price implicitly used in setting the monetary poverty line it makes a big difference whether water sanitation health and education have to be paid by households at competitive market prices or at prevailing prices that may or may not be reduced by public subsidies the application of rowntrees definition may be relatively straightforward for food shelter and clothing but much more difficult for other necessities such as water sanitation health and education for which markets may be missing or incomplete see also thorbecke bourguignon and chakravarty tsui equivalence scales are widely but not always used and often disputed