SAGA Proposal: Multidimensional Poverty Measures

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SAGA Research Proposal:

1.3.2 Multidimensional Poverty Measures

Our interest in multidimensional poverty measures is motivated by the evolution of thinking on poverty toward functionings and capabilities, as discussed in the introduction. As we extend the dimensions across which we measure poverty, empirical methods become more complex. We know that health, educational attainment, social exclusion, and insecurity are often only weakly correlated with incomes or expenditures (Sahn, Stifel and Younger 1999; Appleton and Song 1999). To help understand and reconcile these weak relationships, Cornell researchers are showing that it is theoretically and empirically attractive to make multidimensional poverty comparisons, and that we can do so statistically, in ways that are robust to the specification of poverty lines and to the choice of poverty indices (Duclos, Sahn and Younger 2001). These methods are applicable to many potential research topics in health, education, vulnerability, and voice.

The focus on multidimensional poverty is consistent with the mixing of qualitative and quantitative methods introduced above. Specifically, one important source of weakness in traditional quantitative methods has been in the valuation of non-market goods, especially public goods provided by government, but also household public goods such as the health environment of the domicile. By their very nature, the value of public goods to either households or individuals is impossible to measure directly in monetary terms. Here, once again, drawing upon methods that are typically associated with qualitative assessment may be useful. For example, one of the most important roles of government is to provide public goods in the form of security and a judiciary. It is difficult or impossible to assess in monetary terms who benefits from the existence of the police and the courts. However, the integration of questions into household surveys on issues such as a person’s sense of security and safety, and notions of social justice — again, questions normally associated with qualitative analysis - is another example of the useful bridging of methods.

Another interesting aspect of multidimensional poverty analysis is its focus on individuals, where it is natural to measure functionings and capabilities, rather than households, where we usually measure incomes and expenditures. Thus, a multidimensional perspective begins to yield insight into intra-household issues that are often neglected with traditional quantitative poverty assessments. For example, discrimination against females may be manifested in less education, worse health, and a more limited sense of participating in the life of the community and in the decision making of the household. Moving toward capabilities and functionings also implicitly incorporates the value of many forms of public goods. For example, certain household public goods, such as the health environment of the domicile, will be reflected in the health status of individuals. Likewise, a person's sense of security and his or her degree of social exclusion in part reflect public goods provided by the state.

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