Testing the Expert Based Weights Used in the UK’s Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Against Three Preference-Based Methods

Verity Watson, Chris Dibben, Matt Cox, Iain Atherton, Matt Sutton and Mandy Ryan
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Chris Dibben: University of Edinburgh
Matt Cox: University of St Andrews
Iain Atherton: Edinburgh Napier University
Matt Sutton: University of Manchester
Mandy Ryan: University of Aberdeen

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2019, vol. 144, issue 3, No 3, 1055-1074

Abstract: Abstract The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), used widely in England, is an important tool for social need and inequality identification. It summarises deprivation across seven dimensions (income, employment, health, education, housing and services, environment, and crime) to measure an area’s multidimensional deprivation. The IMD aggregates the dimensions that are differentially weighted using expert judgement. In this paper, we test how close these weights are to society’s preferences about the relative importance of each dimension to overall deprivation. There is not agreement in the literature on how to do this. This paper, therefore, develops and compares three empirical methods for estimating preference-based weights. We find the weights are similar across the methods, and between our empirical methods and the current IMD, but our findings suggest a change to two of the weights.

Keywords: Multidimensional index weights; Deprivation; Preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 C83 D12 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-018-02054-z

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