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On the Interaction Between Focus and Distributional Properties in Multidimensional Poverty Measurement

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  • Suman Seth

    (Leeds University Business School
    University of Oxford)

  • Maria Emma Santos

    (Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)
    University of Oxford)

Abstract

In the multidimensional poverty measurement literature, most measures satisfy the deprivation focus property, which means that they disregard any improvement in non-deprived achievements. Such measures cannot satisfy strong distributional properties as traditionally defined, because the distributional transformations among the poor are allowed to take place among their non-deprived achievements. We formally address this incompatibility and propose a set of alternative definitions of distributional properties that restrict distributional transformations to take place only among deprived achievements. This alternative definition allows discerning within the set of measures that satisfy the deprivation focus property, those that are strongly sensitive to distributional transformations from those that are not. With this new lens, we review some of the most prominent multidimensional poverty measures proposed in the literature and illustrate how measures within the same class as well as measures across different classes can be discerned from each other based on the alternative definitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Suman Seth & Maria Emma Santos, 2019. "On the Interaction Between Focus and Distributional Properties in Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 503-521, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:145:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-019-02110-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-019-02110-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty focus; Deprivation focus; Multidimensional poverty measurement; Transfer property; Rearrangement property; Distributional analysis; Censored achievements;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution

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