IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/rp2004-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Well-being and Non-economic Well-being: A Review of the Meaning and Measurement of Poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Andy Sumner

Abstract

This paper discusses the measurement of poverty and well-being. A historical overview is given of the last fifty years. This is followed by discussion of three groupings of indicators: those measures based primarily on economic well-being; those based on non-economic well-being and composite indicators. It is argued that the choice of indicator should reflect its purpose and that economic measures are best when quick, rough-and-ready, short run, aggregate inferences are required.

Suggested Citation

  • Andy Sumner, 2004. "Economic Well-being and Non-economic Well-being: A Review of the Meaning and Measurement of Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-30, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2004-30
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/rp2004-030.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Streeten, Paul, 1984. "Basic needs: Some unsettled questions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 12(9), pages 973-978, September.
    2. Jacques Loup, David Naudet and Développement et insertion internationale (DIAL), 2000. "The State of Human Development Data and Statistical Capacity Building in Developing Countries," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2000-11, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    3. Anand, Sudhir & Sen, Amartya, 2000. "Human Development and Economic Sustainability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2029-2049, December.
    4. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    5. Pritchett, Lant & Suryahadi, Asep & Sumarto, Sudarno, 2000. "Quantifying vulnerability to poverty - a proposed measure, applied to Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2437, The World Bank.
    6. Srinivasan, T N, 1994. "Human Development: A New Paradigm or Reinvention of the Wheel?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 238-243, May.
    7. Hulya Dagdeviren & Rolph van der Hoeven & John Weeks, 2001. "Redistribution and Growth for Poverty Reduction," Working Papers 118, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    8. Lipton, Michael & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 41, pages 2551-2657, Elsevier.
    9. Sahn, David E. & Stifel, David C., 2000. "Poverty Comparisons Over Time and Across Countries in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2123-2155, December.
    10. Hulya Dagdeviren & Rolph van der Hoeven & John Weeks, 2000. "Redistribution Matters: Growth for Poverty Reduction," Working Papers 99, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    11. Harriss, John, 2002. "The Case for Cross-Disciplinary Approaches in International Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 487-496, March.
    12. Desai, Meghnad, 1991. "Human development : Concepts and measurement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2-3), pages 350-357, April.
    13. Sahn, David E. & Stifel, David C., 2003. "Progress Toward the Millennium Development Goals in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 23-52, January.
    14. Chambers, R. & Conway, G. R., 1991. "Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century," IWMI Books, Reports H032821, International Water Management Institute.
    15. White, Howard, 2002. "Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in Poverty Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 511-522, March.
    16. Hicks, Norman & Streeten, Paul, 1979. "Indicators of development: The search for a basic needs yardstick," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 7(6), pages 567-580, June.
    17. Fine, Ben, 2002. "Economics Imperialism and the New Development Economics as Kuhnian Paradigm Shift?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2057-2070, December.
    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. Lionjanga, Nahungu & Venter, Christo, 2018. "Does public transport accessibility enhance subjective well-being? A study of the City of Johannesburg," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 523-535.
    2. Laura Camfield & Kaneta Choudhury & Joe Devine, 2009. "Well-being, Happiness and Why Relationships Matter: Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 71-91, March.
    3. B.Sudhakara Reddy & Arpit Tiwari, 2017. "Picking The Winner: Measuring Urban," Working Papers id:11695, eSocialSciences.
    4. Simona Šarotar Žižek & Matjaž Mulej & Sonja Treven, 2010. "Requisite Holism Of Individuals As A Precondition For The Humankind’S Way Out From The 2008- Crisis," Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi - Stiinte Economice (1954-2015), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 57, pages 399-419, november.
    5. Divya Pradeep & K. C. Adaina & Sonia Kahmei, 2020. "Well-being of North Eastern Migrant Workers in Bangalore," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(1), pages 99-114, April.
    6. B. Sudhakara Reddy & Arpit Tiwari, 2016. "Picking the winner: Measuring urban sustainability in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2016-021, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    7. Deb, Surajit, 2010. "Can Trade Liberalization Promote Growth in Agriculture: Evidence from China and India," Conference papers 332011, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    8. Owen Gohori & Peet van der Merwe, 2020. "Towards a Tourism and Community-Development Framework: An African Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-35, June.

    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. Andrew Sumner, 2010. "Economic Well-being and Non-economic Well-being: A Review of the Meaning and Measurement of Poverty," Working Papers id:3268, eSocialSciences.
    2. Zelinsky, Tomas, 2014. "Chudoba a deprivácia na Slovensku: Metodologické aspekty a empíria [Poverty and Deprivation in Slovakia: Methodological Aspects and Empirics]," MPRA Paper 76868, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Berenger, Valerie & Verdier-Chouchane, Audrey, 2007. "Multidimensional Measures of Well-Being: Standard of Living and Quality of Life Across Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1259-1276, July.
    4. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2004. "On the Measurement of Human Well-being: Fuzzy Set Theory and Sen's Capability Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-16, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Salih, Siddig Abdulmageed, 2011. "Comprehensive Human Development: Realities and Aspirations," Islamic Economic Studies, The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), vol. 19, pages 19-49.
    6. Michael Tribe & Andrew Sumner, 2006. "Development economics at a crossroads? Introduction to a policy arena," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7), pages 957-966.
    7. Anto, Mb Hendrie, 2011. "Introducing an Islamic Human Development Index (I-HDI) to Measure Development in OIC Countries," Islamic Economic Studies, The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), vol. 19, pages 69-95.
    8. Andy Sumner, 2013. "The Evolution Of Education And Health Poverty During Economic Development:The Case Of Indonesia, 1991–2007," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 201311, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised May 2013.
    9. Swati Dutta & Lakshmi Kumar, 2013. "Poverty Dynamics in Rural India: An Asset-Based Approach," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 7(4), pages 475-506, November.
    10. AfDB AfDB, 2006. "Working Paper 83 - Are African Countries Richer Than They Are Developed? A Multidimensional Analysis of Well-Being," Working Paper Series 2297, African Development Bank.
    11. Miles Cahill & Nicolás Sánchez, 2001. "Using principal components to produce an economic and social development index: An application to Latin America and the U.S," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 29(3), pages 311-329, September.
    12. Rafael Perez Ribas & Ana Flávia Machado, 2007. "Distinguishing Chronic Poverty from Transient Poverty in Brazil: Developing a Model for Pseudo-Panel Data," Working Papers 36, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    13. Rafael Perez Ribas & Ana Flávia Machado & André Braz Golgher, 2006. "Fluctuations and persistence in poverty: a transient-chronic decomposition model for pseudo-panel data," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG td290, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    14. Sayel Basel & K. U. Gopakumar & R. Prabhakara Rao, 2020. "Broad-based index for measurement of development," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 22(1), pages 182-206, June.
    15. Nicola Amendola & Giacomo Gabbuti & Giovanni Vecchi, 2023. "On some problems of using the Human Development Index in economic history," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 27(4), pages 477-505.
    16. Zeller, Manfred & Sharma, Manohar & Lapenu, Cécile & Henry, Carla, 2001. "An operational tool for evaluating poverty outreach of development policies and projects," FCND discussion papers 111, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Nicola Amendola & Giacomo Gabbuti & Giovanni Vecchi, 2018. "On the use of composite indices in economic history. Lessons from Italy, 1861-2017," HHB Working Papers Series 11, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    18. Zeller, Manfred & Sharma, Manohar & Henry, Carla & Lapenu, Cecile, 2006. "An operational method for assessing the poverty outreach performance of development policies and projects: Results of case studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 446-464, March.
    19. repec:cte:whrepe:wp07-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. AfDB AfDB, 2006. "Working Paper 83 - Are African Countries Richer Than They Are Developed? A Multidimensional Analysis of Well-Being," Working Paper Series 2217, African Development Bank.
    21. Andy Sumner, 2014. "Who are likely to be the future poor in Indonesia? Evidence on primary school non-completion from six rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey, 1991-2012," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 201406, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised May 2014.

    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:unu:wpaper:rp2004-30. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.