IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qeh/ophiwp/ophiwp068.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring and Decomposing Inequality among the Multidimensionally Poor Using Ordinal Data: A Counting Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Suman Seth, Sabina Alkire

Abstract

Poverty has many dimensions, which, in practice, are often binary or ordinal in nature. A number of multidimensional measures of poverty have recently been proposed that respect this ordinal nature. These measures agree that the consideration of inequality across the poor is important, which is typically captured by adjusting the poverty measure to be sensitive to inequality. This, however, comes at the cost of sacrificing certain policy-relevant properties, such as not being able to break down the measure across dimensions to understand their contributions to overall poverty. In addition, compounding inequality into a poverty measure does not necessarily create an appropriate framework for capturing disparity in poverty across population subgroups, which is crucial for effective policy. In this paper, we propose using a separate decomposable inequality measure - a positive multiple of variance - to capture inequality in deprivation counts among the poor and decompose across population subgroups. We provide two illustrations using Demographic Health Survey datasets to demonstrate how this inequality measure adds important information to the adjusted headcount ratio poverty measure in the Alkire-Foster class of measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Suman Seth, Sabina Alkire, 2014. "Measuring and Decomposing Inequality among the Multidimensionally Poor Using Ordinal Data: A Counting Approach," OPHI Working Papers 68, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
  • Handle: RePEc:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ophi.org.uk/measuring-and-decomposing-inequality-among-the-multidimensionally-poor-using-ordinal-data-a-counting-approach/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    4. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. II," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 82-111, August.
    5. 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.
    6. BOSSERT, Walter & CHAKRAVARTY, Satya R. & D’AMBROSIO, Conchita, 2009. "Multidimensional Poverty and Material Deprivation," Cahiers de recherche 2009-11, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    7. Bosmans, Kristof & Cowell, Frank A., 2010. "The class of absolute decomposable inequality measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 154-156, December.
    8. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. I," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 416-442, June.
    9. Ankita Mishra & Ranjan Ray, 2013. "Multi-Dimensional Deprivation in India During and After the Reforms: Do the Household Expenditure and the Family Health Surveys Present Consistent Evidence?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 791-818, January.
    10. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-1385, November.
    11. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292975, Decembrie.
    12. Dominique Thon, 1979. "On Measuring Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 25(4), pages 429-439, December.
    13. Alkire, Sabina & Seth, Suman, 2015. "Multidimensional Poverty Reduction in India between 1999 and 2006: Where and How?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 93-108.
    14. Oihana Aristondo & Casilda Lasso De La Vega & Ana Urrutia, 2010. "A New Multiplicative Decomposition For The Foster–Greer–Thorbecke Poverty Indices," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 259-267, July.
    15. Diaz, Yadira & Angulo, Roberto & Pardo, Renata, 2013. "Multidimensional poverty in Colombia, 1997-2010," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    17. Clark, Stephen & Hemming, Richard & Ulph, David, 1981. "On Indices for the Measurement of Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(362), pages 515-526, June.
    18. 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.
    19. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    20. Satya R. Chakravarty, 2019. "Ethically Flexible Measures of Poverty," Themes in Economics, in: Satya R. Chakravarty (ed.), Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance, pages 13-26, Springer.
    21. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 476-487.
    22. Foster, James E. & Shneyerov, Artyom A., 2000. "Path Independent Inequality Measures," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 199-222, April.
    23. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    24. Sabina Alkire, Maria Emma Santos, 2010. "Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries," OPHI Working Papers 38, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    25. Ravi Kanbur, 2006. "The policy significance of inequality decompositions," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(3), pages 367-374, December.
    26. Enrique Delamonica & Alberto Minujin, 2007. "Incidence, Depth and Severity of Children in Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 82(2), pages 361-374, June.
    27. 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.
    28. 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.
    29. Satya Chakravarty, 2001. "The Variance as a subgroup decomposable measure of inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 79-95, January.
    30. Suman Seth, 2013. "A class of distribution and association sensitive multidimensional welfare indices," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(2), pages 133-162, June.
    31. Kuan Xu & Lars Osberg, 2001. "How to Decompose Sen-Shorrocks-Thon Poverty Index: A Practitioner’s Guide," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 10(1-2), pages 7-7, June.
    32. Thon, Dominique, 1979. "On Measuring Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 25(4), pages 429-439, December.
    33. Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), 2008. "Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-58235-4, December.
    34. Jenkins, Stephen P & Lambert, Peter J, 1997. "Three 'I's of Poverty Curves, with an Analysis of UK Poverty Trends," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 317-327, July.
    35. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1995. "Revisiting the Sen Poverty Index," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(5), pages 1225-1230, September.
    36. James E. Foster & Artyom A. Shneyerov, 1999. "A general class of additively decomposable inequality measures," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 14(1), pages 89-111.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sabina Alkire & Bouba Housseini, 2014. "Multidimensional Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Levels and Trends," OPHI Working Papers 81, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    2. José V. Gallegos & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2015. "Robust ``pro-poorest'' poverty reduction with counting measures: The anonymous case," Working Papers 361, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. 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.
    4. Lejla TERZIĆ, 2018. "A competitive economy as the path to future prosperity: Comparative analysis of selected European countries," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(2(615), S), pages 149-162, Summer.
    5. Valérie Bérenger, 2014. "Using Ordinal Variables to Measure Multidimensional Poverty in Two South Mediterranean Countries," GREDEG Working Papers 2014-49, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    6. Valérie Bérenger, 2017. "Using ordinal variables to measure multidimensional poverty in Egypt and Jordan," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(2), pages 143-173, June.
    7. Misganaw Teshager Abeje & Atsushi Tsunekawa & Nigussie Haregeweyn & Zemen Ayalew & Zerihun Nigussie & Daregot Berihun & Enyew Adgo & Asres Elias, 2020. "Multidimensional Poverty and Inequality: Insights from the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 585-611, June.
    8. Valérie Bérenger, 2017. "The counting approach to multidimensional poverty: The case of four African countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-210, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Valérie Bérenger, 2017. "The counting approach to multidimensional poverty: The case of four African countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 210, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Valérie Bérenger, 2017. "Using ordinal variables to measure multidimensional poverty in Egypt and Jordan," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(2), pages 143-173, June.
    11. Stuart C. Carr & Jane Parker & James Arrowsmith & Jarrod Haar & Harvey Jones, 2017. "Humanistic Management and Living Wages: a Case of Compelling Connections?," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 215-236, April.
    12. 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 multidi," MPRA Paper 74997, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. James Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures: 25 years later," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(4), pages 491-524, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Sabina Alkire and James Foster, 2016. "Dimensional and Distributional Contributions to Multidimensional Poverty," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp100_2.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    4. Ottó Hajdu, 2021. "A New Generalized Variance Approach for Measuring Multidimensional Inequality and Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 839-861, December.
    5. Yadira Diaz, 2015. "Differences in needs and multidimensional deprivation measurement," Working Papers 387, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Buhong Zheng, 2021. "Stochastic dominance and decomposable measures of inequality and poverty," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(2), pages 228-247, April.
    7. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Deutsch, Joseph & Silber, Jacques, 2008. "On the Watts Multidimensional Poverty Index and its Decomposition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1067-1077, June.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Srinivas Goli & Nagendra Kumar Maurya & Moradhvaj & Prem Bhandari, 2019. "Regional Differentials in Multidimensional Poverty in Nepal: Rethinking Dimensions and Method of Computation," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, March.
    11. Suman Seth and Gaston Yalonetzky, 2018. "Assessing Deprivation with Ordinal Variables: Depth Sensitivity and Poverty Aversion," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp123.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Joachim Merz & Tim Rathjen, 2011. "Intensity of Time and Income Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty: Well-Being and Minimum 2DGAP – German Evidence," FFB-Discussionpaper 92, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)), LEUPHANA University Lüneburg.
    15. 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.
    16. Núñez Velázquez, José Javier, 2009. "Estado actual y nuevas aproximaciones a la medición de la pobreza/Current Status and New Approaches to the Measurement of Poverty," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 27, pages 325-346, Agosto.
    17. Jean–Yves Duclos & Phillipe Grégoire, 2002. "Absolute and Relative Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 471-492, December.
    18. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 476-487, August.
    19. 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 multidi," MPRA Paper 74997, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Aysenur Acar, 2014. "The Dynamics of Multidimensional Poverty in Turkey," Working Papers 014, Bahcesehir University, Betam.

    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:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp068. 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.