Multidimensional poverty measurement : making the identification of the poor count?
Permanyer, Iñaki (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics)
Riffe, Tim (University of California)

Date:	2015
Abstract:	The success of any poverty eradication program crucially depends on its ability to identify who is poor and who is not. In this paper, we show that the state-of-the-art methodology that is used to identify the poor in multidimensional contexts -the dual cutoff method suggested by Alkire and Foster- is insensitive to many of the subtle considerations that should be incorporated when making such delicate decisions. The simplicity of the counting approach that underlies the dual cutoff method precludes the possibility of generating "poor-identification rules" that are sensitive to interactions between the different dimensions of poverty. To go beyond the apples-and-oranges aggregation procedures characterizing the dual cutoff method, we suggest a much broader identification approach that contains the latter as a particular case. Our empirical findings using 48 Demographic and Health Surveys across the developing world suggest that the percentage of households that are inconsistenly identified as "poor" according to the dual cutoff and some of the methods suggested in this paper is around 30% -a result with enormous implications for the identification of the potential beneficiaries of poverty eradication programs worldwide.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ERC-2014-StG-637768 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ECO2013-46516-C4-1-R
Note:	6th Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ), celebrat a Luxemburg, 13-15 de juliol de 2015
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Comunicació de congrés
Subject:	Multidimensional poverty measurement ; Identification ; Dual cutoff method ; Counting approach ; Consistency condition
Published in:	Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ). Luxembourg, 6è : 2015

37 p, 326.9 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Social and Legal Sciences > Centre for Demographic Studies (CED-CERCA)
Contributions to meetings and congresses > Papers and communications > UAB papers and communications