IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qeh/ophiwp/ophiwp007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement

Author

Listed:
  • Sabina Alkire, James Foster

Abstract

This paper proposes a new methodology for multidimensional poverty measurement consisting of an identification method ρκ ('rho-kapa') that extends traditional approaches, and a class of poverty measures Μα ('Mu-alpha') that satisfies several desirable properties including decomposability. Our identification step employs two forms of cutoff: one within each dimension and a second across dimensions that identifies the poor by counting their deprivations. We aggregate using Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures adjusted for multidimensionality. Our adjusted headcount ratio is well suited for use with ordinal data. Examples from Indonesia and the US illustrate our methodology.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabina Alkire, James Foster, 2009. "Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," OPHI Working Papers 7, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ophi.org.uk/working-paper-number-07/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Vito Peragine, 2007. "Deprivation and Social Exclusion," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 777-803, November.
    2. James E. Foster, 2007. "A Class of Chronic Poverty Measures," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0701, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    3. Esfandiar Maasoumi & Maria Ana Lugo, 2008. "The Information Basis of Multivariate Poverty Assessments," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 1, pages 1-29, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D’Ambrosio, 2019. "The Measurement of Social Exclusion," Themes in Economics, in: Satya R. Chakravarty (ed.), Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance, pages 167-189, Springer.
    5. Jean-Yves Duclos & David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 943-968, October.
    6. Farina, Francesco & Hahn, Frank & Vannucci, Stefano (ed.), 1996. "Ethics, Rationality, and Economic Behaviour," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289814, Decembrie.
    7. Achille Lemmi & Gianni Betti (ed.), 2006. "Fuzzy Set Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, number 978-0-387-34251-1, June.
    8. Amartya Sen, 2004. "Capabilities, Lists, And Public Reason: Continuing The Conversation," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 77-80.
    9. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    10. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    11. Alkire, Sabina, 2002. "Dimensions of Human Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 181-205, February.
    12. Nolan, Brian & Whelan, Christopher T., 1996. "Resources, Deprivation, and Poverty," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287858, Decembrie.
    13. Feres, Juan Carlos & Mancero, Xavier, 2000. "El método de las necesidades básicas insatisfechas (NBI) y sus aplicaciones en América Latina," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 31527, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    14. K. J. Arrow & A. K. Sen & K. Suzumura (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    15. James Foster & Mark McGillivray & Suman Seth, 2009. "Rank Robustness of Composite Indices," OPHI Working Papers 26, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    16. Satya R. Chakravarty & Jacques Silber, 2008. "Measuring Multidimensional Poverty: The Axiomatic Approach," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 11, pages 192-209, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi & Ruhi Saith & Frances Stewart, 2003. "Does it Matter that we do not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 243-274.
    18. Atkinson, Tony & Cantillon, Bea & Marlier, Eric & Nolan, Brian, 2002. "Social Indicators: The EU and Social Inclusion," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199253494, Decembrie.
    19. Colander,David C. & Coats,Alfred William (ed.), 1993. "The Spread of Economic Ideas," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521446501, Enero-Abr.
    20. François Bourguignon & Satya R. Chakravarty, 2019. "The Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty," Themes in Economics, in: Satya R. Chakravarty (ed.), Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance, pages 83-107, Springer.
    21. Joseph Deutsch & Jacques Silber, 2005. "Measuring Multidimensional Poverty: An Empirical Comparison Of Various Approaches," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 51(1), pages 145-174, March.
    22. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292975, Decembrie.
    23. David Colander, 2018. "The Death Of Neoclassical Economics," Chapters, in: How Economics Should Be Done, chapter 5, pages 46-62, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    24. Calvo, Cesar, 2008. "Vulnerability to Multidimensional Poverty: Peru, 1998-2002," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1011-1020, June.
    25. Tony Atkinson & Bea Cantillon & Eric Marlier & Brian Nolan, 2002. "Indicators for Social Inclusion," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 7-28.
    26. Boland, Philip J. & Proschan, Frank, 1988. "Multivariate arrangement increasing functions with applications in probability and statistics," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 286-298, May.
    27. Harvey, David, 2007. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283279, Decembrie.
    28. Ravallion, Martin, 1994. "Measuring Social Welfare with and without Poverty Lines," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 359-364, May.
    29. Ingrid Robeyns, 2005. "Selecting Capabilities for Quality of Life Measurement," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 191-215, October.
    30. Samuels, Warren J., 2002. "Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science. By Philip Mirowski. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xiv, 655. $35.00, paper," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(3), pages 913-915, September.
    31. Prasanta K. PATTANAIK & Yongsheng XU, 1990. "On Ranking Opportunity Sets in Terms of Freedom of Choice," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 1990036, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    32. Louis-Marie Asselin, 2009. "Analysis of Multidimensional Poverty," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, edition 1, number 978-1-4419-0843-8, June.
    33. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    34. Sabina Alkire, 2013. "Choosing Dimensions: The Capability Approach and Multidimensional Poverty," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), The Many Dimensions of Poverty, chapter 6, pages 89-119, Palgrave Macmillan.
    35. Kai-yuen Tsui, 2002. "Multidimensional poverty indices," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 19(1), pages 69-93.
    36. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226320625 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Kannai, Yakar, 1980. "The ALEP definition of complementarity and least concave utility functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 115-117, February.
    38. Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), 2008. "Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-58235-4, August.
    39. Allison, R. Andrew & Foster, James E., 2004. "Measuring health inequality using qualitative data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 505-524, May.
    40. Serge-Christophe Kolm, 1977. "Multidimensional Egalitarianisms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(1), pages 1-13.
    41. A. Atkinson, 2003. "Multidimensional Deprivation: Contrasting Social Welfare and Counting Approaches," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 1(1), pages 51-65, April.
    42. Alain Janvry & Ravi Kanbur (ed.), 2006. "Poverty, Inequality and Development," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, number 978-0-387-29748-4, June.
    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. Sabina Alkire, 2011. "Multidimensional Poverty and its Discontents," OPHI Working Papers 46, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    2. Sabina Alkire & Maria Santos, 2013. "A Multidimensional Approach: Poverty Measurement & Beyond," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 239-257, June.
    3. Sabina Alkire, James E. Foster, 2009. "Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement (Revised and Updated)," OPHI Working Papers 32, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    4. Diego Battiston & Guillermo Cruces & Luis Lopez-Calva & Maria Lugo & Maria Santos, 2013. "Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 291-314, June.
    5. Sabina Alkire, 2008. "Concepts and Measures of Agency," OPHI Working Papers 9, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    6. 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.
    7. Sabina Alkire & James Foster, 2011. "Understandings and misunderstandings of multidimensional poverty measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 289-314, June.
    8. Dipesh Gangopadhyay & Robert B. Nielsen & Velma Zahirovic-Herbert, 2021. "Methodology and Axiomatic Characterization of a Multidimensional and Fuzzy Measure of Deprivation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 1-37, January.
    9. Sabina Alkire, James Foster, 2009. "Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement (Short Version)," OPHI Working Papers 7_5, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    10. Maria Emma Santos, 2014. "Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America: Previous Experience and the Way Forward," OPHI Working Papers 66, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    11. Yélé Batana, 2013. "Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty Among Women in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 337-362, June.
    12. 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.
    13. Rolf Aaberge & Eugenio Peluso & Henrik Sigstad, 2015. "The dual approach for measuring. Multidimesional deprivation and poverty," Discussion Papers 820, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    14. Rolf Aaberge & Andrea Brandolini, 2014. "Multidimensional poverty and inequality," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 976, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    15. James E. Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Poverty Measures: Twenty-Five Years Later," Working Papers 2010-14, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    16. Andrea Brandolini, 2008. "On applying synthetic indices of multidimensional well-being: health and income inequalities in selected EU countries," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 668, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. José Roche, 2013. "Monitoring Progress in Child Poverty Reduction: Methodological Insights and Illustration to the Case Study of Bangladesh," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 363-390, June.
    18. Sung-Geun Kim, 2015. "Fuzzy Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: An Analysis of Statistical Behaviors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 635-667, February.
    19. Mauricio Gallardo, 2020. "Measuring Vulnerability to Multidimensional Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 67-103, February.
    20. Yadira Diaz, 2015. "Differences in needs and multidimensional deprivation measurement," Working Papers 387, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp007. 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: IT Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/qehoxuk.html .

    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.