IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v38y2026i2p193-209.html

Gender Differences in Multidimensional Poverty in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Burchi
  • Daniele Malerba

Abstract

Despite the growing demand for gender‐disaggregated statistics on poverty, there is hardly any cross‐country evidence of gender disparities in poverty. The paper contributes to filling this gap, by using two novel individual‐level indices of multidimensional poverty. Relying on data from 78 low‐ and middle‐income countries, it finds that almost everywhere female poverty exceeds male poverty. In the median country, female poverty is 58%–85% higher than male poverty. The highest gender disparities in poverty were detected in the MENA, Latin America and South Asia regions. Finally, the majority of countries experienced an increase in the female/male poverty ratio, thus a feminization of poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Burchi & Daniele Malerba, 2026. "Gender Differences in Multidimensional Poverty in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 193-209, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:38:y:2026:i:2:p:193-209
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.70049
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.70049
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.70049?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp135 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    3. Francesco Burchi & Daniele Malerba & Claudio E. Montenegro & Nicole Rippin, 2022. "Assessing Trends in Multidimensional Poverty During the MDGs," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S2), pages 317-346, December.
    4. Espinoza-Delgado, José & Klasen, Stephan, 2018. "Gender and multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua: An individual based approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 466-491.
    5. Hasan Tekgüç & Bengi Akbulut, 2022. "A Multidimensional Approach to the Gender Gap in Poverty: An Application for Turkey," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 119-151, April.
    6. Khaufelo Raymond Lekobane, 2022. "Leaving No One Behind: An Individual-Level Approach to Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Botswana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 179-208, July.
    7. The World Bank, 2022. "Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course," Post-Print hal-05130118, HAL.
    8. César García‐Gómez & Ana Pérez & Mercedes Prieto‐Alaiz, 2019. "A Review Of Stochastic Dominance Methods For Poverty Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 1437-1462, December.
    9. McArthur, John W. & Rasmussen, Krista, 2018. "Change of pace: Accelerations and advances during the Millennium Development Goal era," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 132-143.
    10. Ghazal Bayanpourtehrani & Kevin Sylwester, 2013. "Female Labour Force Participation And Religion: A Cross-Country Analysis," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 107-133, April.
    11. Verónica Amarante & Maira Colacce & Federico Scalese, 2022. "Poverty and gender in Latin America: How far can income‐based measures go?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 109-129, January.
    12. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 476-487, August.
    13. Arndt, Channing & Distante, Roberta & Hussain, M. Azhar & Østerdal, Lars Peter & Huong, Pham Lan & Ibraimo, Maimuna, 2012. "Ordinal Welfare Comparisons with Multiple Discrete Indicators: A First Order Dominance Approach and Application to Child Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2290-2301.
    14. World Bank, 2022. "Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 37739, April.
    15. Dutta, Indranil & Nogales, Ricardo & Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2021. "Endogenous weights and multidimensional poverty: A cautionary tale," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    16. Arora, Diksha & Braunstein, Elissa & Seguino, Stephanie, 2023. "A macro analysis of gender segregation and job quality in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    17. Alkire, Sabina & Santos, Maria Emma, 2014. "Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 251-274.
    18. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-36 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Arndt, Channing & Distante, Roberta & Hussain, M. Azhar & Østerdal, Lars Peter & Huong, Pham Lan & Ibraimo, Maimuna, 2012. "Ordinal Welfare Comparisons with Multiple Discrete Indicators: A First Order Dominance Approach and Application to Child Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2290-2301.
    20. Shelly J. Lundberg & Robert A. Pollak & Terence J. Wales, 1997. "Do Husbands and Wives Pool Their Resources? Evidence from the United Kingdom Child Benefit," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(3), pages 463-480.
    21. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    22. Balasubramanian, P. & Burchi, F. & Malerba, D., 2023. "Does economic growth reduce multidimensional poverty? Evidence from low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    23. Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis & Topaloglou, Nikolas, 2020. "On the construction of a feasible range of multidimensional poverty under benchmark weight uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(2), pages 415-427.
    24. Vijaya, Ramya M. & Lahoti, Rahul & Swaminathan, Hema, 2014. "Moving from the Household to the Individual: Multidimensional Poverty Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 70-81.
    25. Lo Bue, Maria C. & Le, Tu Thi Ngoc & Santos Silva, Manuel & Sen, Kunal, 2022. "Gender and vulnerable employment in the developing world: Evidence from global microdata," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bao, Yanxi & Liao, Tingxuan, 2024. "Multidimensional poverty and growth: Evidence from India 1998–2021," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    2. Espinoza-Delgado, José & Silber, Jacques, 2018. "Multi-dimensional poverty among adults in Central America and gender differences in the three I’s of poverty: Applying inequality sensitive poverty measures with ordinal variables," MPRA Paper 88750, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Khaufelo Raymond Lekobane, 2022. "Leaving No One Behind: An Individual-Level Approach to Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Botswana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 179-208, July.
    4. Na Li & Mang He, 2024. "Feminization of poverty: an analysis of multidimensional poverty among rural women in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Burhan Can Karahasan & Fırat Bilgel, 2021. "The Topography and Sources of Multidimensional Poverty in Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 413-445, April.
    6. Francis Mulangu & Michael Keller & Jean-Pascal Nganou & Mokhtar Benlamine, 2025. "Understanding How Economic Growth Dimensions Influence Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from 80+ Countries Over Two Decades," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(6), pages 1130-1174, December.
    7. Francesco Burchi & Daniele Malerba & Claudio E. Montenegro & Nicole Rippin, 2022. "Assessing Trends in Multidimensional Poverty During the MDGs," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S2), pages 317-346, December.
    8. Stephan Klasen & Rahul Lahoti, 2021. "How Serious is the Neglect of Intra‐Household Inequality in Multidimensional Poverty and Inequality Analyses? Evidence from India," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(3), pages 705-731, September.
    9. Yu, Shuang & Guo, Qiuyan & Liang, Yinhe, 2025. "The power of education: The intergenerational impact of children’s education on the poverty of Chinese older adults," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    10. Espinoza-Delgado, José & Klasen, Stephan, 2018. "Gender and multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua: An individual based approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 466-491.
    11. Alkire, Sabina & Nogales, Ricardo & Quinn, Natalie Naïri & Suppa, Nicolai, 2023. "On track or not? Projecting the global Multidimensional Poverty Index," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    12. Malokele Nanivazo, 2015. "First Order Dominance Analysis: Child Wellbeing in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 235-255, May.
    13. Malokele Nanivazo, 2014. "First Order Dominance Analysis: Child Wellbeing in the Democratic Republic of Congo," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-025, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Uche M. Ozughalu & Joy N. Ozughalu, 2026. "Child Deprivation and Multidimensional Child Poverty Among Children Under Five Years in an Urban Slum in Enugu State, Nigeria: Evidence Based on Health, Housing and Sanitation Dimensions And Indicators," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 19(2), pages 631-663, April.
    15. Guo, Junping & Qu, Song & Zhu, Tiehui, 2022. "Estimating China’s relative and multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from micro-level data of 6145 rural households," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    16. Espinoza-Delgado, José & López-Laborda, Julio, 2016. "Las tres Is de la pobreza multidimensional en Nicaragua y el diferencial de género en los primeros quince años del siglo XXI, a partir de un enfoque centrado en la persona [The three I’s of multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua and the gender diff," MPRA Paper 74997, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Kai Wang & Chang Gan & Lijun Chen & Mihai Voda, 2020. "Poor Residents’ Perceptions of the Impacts of Tourism on Poverty Alleviation: From the Perspective of Multidimensional Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    18. Balasubramanian, P. & Burchi, F. & Malerba, D., 2023. "Does economic growth reduce multidimensional poverty? Evidence from low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    19. Mohammad Zaki Bin Che & Faridah Jaafar, 2025. "RISDA and Rural Development: Socioeconomic Impacts of Monsoon Season Aid in Padang Terap, Kedah, Malaysia," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(6), pages 1314-1323, June.
    20. Sophie Scharlin-Pettee & Yeshwas Admasu & Sabina Alkire, 2024. "Multidimensional Poverty, Gender, and Forced Displacement: A Multi-Country, Intrahousehold Analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(12), pages 1852-1878, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:38:y:2026:i:2:p:193-209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.