Examination of the effects of variation in the measurement of multidimensional poverty in the United States

Roger White and Lindley Lee-Niegas

Chapter 9 in Research Handbook on Poverty and Inequality, 2023, pp 138-171 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the extent to which methodological differences produce variations in multidimensional poverty index (MPI) values and corresponding measures of deprivation incidence and intensity in the United States. Application of the methodologies employed in 10 prior studies to a common data set and period (i.e., annual ACS-PUMS data for the years 2008 through 2019) reveals considerable heterogeneity in MPI values and the incidence of multidimensional poverty (i.e., the headcount ratio). Across methodologies, lesser variation exists in the average intensity of multidimensional deprivation. The primary factors driving variation in MPI values are differences in the numbers of indicators and dimensions employed, the choice of indicators, the grouping of indicators into dimensions, and the resulting differences in indicator and dimension weights. Given these findings, and as multidimensional poverty analysis has important implications for public policy, a set of best practices is recommended to produce more uniform measurement of multidimensional poverty in the United States.

Keywords: Development Studies; Geography; Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781800882300/9781800882300.00016.xml (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:20521_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().