Multidimensional Poverty in Greece: A Deep, Persistent Grey?

This study fleshes out the picture of poverty and the poor in Greece, presenting findings with important implications for the Greek social inclusion strategy. Assessing poverty using both monetary and non-monetary dimensions of well-being it becomes evident that, for certain population groups, poverty risk is associated with deprivation risk (multidimensional nature of poverty). Focusing on the age dimension, the stochastic dominance analysis indicates that old age income poverty in Greece appears to be remarkably robust and is not simply due to the choice of poverty lines. Moreover, what is at work statistically is that old age income has an effective 'floor' which is constraining inequality among the poor. Such a floor is not evident in the case of the younger group whose distribution of income below the poverty line is much more dispersed. These findings support the argument that much of the effect of the old age poverty alleviation policies over the ten last years in Greece is concentrated on the formation of 'an effective floor' for the elderly population rather than on decreasing poverty rates.