Multidimensional Poverty Analysis: Looking for a Middle Ground

Francisco Ferreira and Maria Ana Lugo

No 45, IZA Policy Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Widespread agreement that poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon, encompassing deprivations along multiple dimensions, clashes with often vociferous disagreement about how best to measure these deprivations. Drawing on the recent literature, this short note proposes three methodological alternatives to the false dichotomy between scalar indices of multidimensional poverty, on the one hand, and a “dashboard” approach that looks only at marginal distributions, on the other. These alternatives include simple Venn diagrams of the overlap of deprivations across dimensions, multivariate stochastic dominance analysis, and the analysis of copula functions, which capture the extent of interdependency across dimensions. Examples from the literature on both developing and developed countries are provided.

Keywords: multidimensional poverty; dependency structure; copulas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published - published in: World Bank Research Observer, 2013, 28 (2), 220-235

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Related works:
Journal Article: Multidimensional Poverty Analysis: Looking for a Middle Ground (2013)
Working Paper: Multidimensional poverty analysis: Looking for a middle ground (2012)
Working Paper: Multidimensional poverty analysis: Looking for a middle ground (2012)
Working Paper: Multidimensional poverty analysis: Looking for a middle ground (2011)
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