Abstract
A multidimensional poverty assessment requires a weighting scheme to aggregate the well-being dimensions considered. We use Alkire and Foster’s J. Public Econ. 95, 476–487 (2011a) framework to discuss the channels through which a change of the weighting structure affects the outcomes of the analysis in terms of overall poverty assessment, its dimensional and subgroup decomposability and policy evaluation. We exploit the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to evaluate how alternative weighting structures affect the measurement of poverty for the population of over-50s in ten European countries. Further, we show that in our empirical exercise the results based on hedonic weights estimated on the basis of life satisfaction self-assessments are robust to the presence of heterogeneous response styles across respondents.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Aaberge, R., Peluso, E.: A counting approach for measuring multidimensional deprivation. Discussion paper, Statistics Norway Research Department, 700 (2012)
Alkire, S., Foster, J.: Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. J. Public Econ. 95, 476–487 (2011a)
Alkire, S., Foster, J.: Understandings and misunderstandings of multidimensional poverty measurement. J. Econ. Inequal. 9, 289–314 (2011b)
Angelini, V., Cavapozzi, D., Corazzini, L., Paccagnella, O.: Age, health and life satisfaction among older Europeans. Soc. Indic. Res. 105, 293–308 (2012)
Angelini, V., Cavapozzi, D., Corazzini, L., Paccagnella, O.: Do Danes and Italians rate life satisfaction in the same way? Using vignettes to correct for individual-specific scale biases. Oxf. Bull. Econ. Stat. 76(5), 643–666 (2014)
Blanchflower, D.G., Oswald, A.J.: Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle? Soc. Sci. Medicine 66, 1733–1749 (2008)
Börsch-Supan, A., Brugiavini, A., Jürges, H., Kapteyn, A., Mackenbach, J., Siegrist J., Weber, G.: First results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2007). Starting the longitudinal dimension. Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), Mannheim (2008)
Bourguignon, F., Chakravarty, S.R.: The measurement of multidimensional poverty. J. Econ. Inequal. 1, 25–49 (2003)
Bosmans, K., Lauwers, L., Ooghe, E.: Prioritarian poverty comparisons with cardinal and ordinal attributes. Discussion paper, Center for Economic Studies. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 13.10 (2013)
Bossert, W., Chakravarty, S.R., D’Ambrosio, C.: Multidimensional poverty and material deprivation with discrete data. Rev. Income Wealth 59(1), 29–43 (2013)
Cavapozzi, D., Han, W., Miniaci, R.: Alternative weighting structures for multidimensional poverty assessment. University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management) Research Report 13018-EEF (2013)
Decancq, K., Fleurbaey, M., Maniquet, F.: Multidimensional poverty measurement with individual preferences. Discussion paper, pp 058–2014. Princeton University William S. Dietrich II Economic Theory Center Working Paper (2014)
Decancq, K., Lugo, M.A.: Weights in multidimensional indices of well-being: An overview. Econom. Rev. 32, 7–34 (2013)
Desai, M., Shah, A.: An econometric approach to the measurement of poverty. Oxf. Econ. Pap. 40, 505–522 (1988)
Dolan, P., Peasgood, T., White, M.: Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being. J. Econ. Psychol. 29, 94–122 (2008)
Eurostat: Measuring material deprivation in the EU — Indicators for the whole population and child-specific indicators. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (2012)
Fleurbaey, M., Schokkaert, E., Decancq, K.: What good is happiness?. Université Catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) Discussion Paper 2009/17 (2009)
Foster, J.E., Greer, J., Thorbecke, E.: A class of decomposable poverty measures. Econom. 52, 761–766 (1984)
Frey, B.S., Stutzer, A.: What can economists learn from happiness research? J. Econ. Lit. 40, 402–435 (2002)
Kapteyn, A., Smith, J.P., Van Soest, A.H.O.: Comparing life satisfaction. RAND Working Paper WR-623-1 (2009)
King, G., Murray, C., Salomon, J., Tandon, A.: Enhancing the validity and cross-cultural comparability of measurement in survey research. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 98, 567–583 (2004)
Kingdon, G.G., Knight, J.: Subjective well-being poverty vs. income poverty and capabilities poverty? J. Devel. Stud. 42(7), 1199–1224 (2006)
Nussbaum, M.C.: Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001)
Nussbaum, M.C.: Who is the happy warrior? Philosophy poses questions to psychology. J. Leg. Stud. 37(S2), S81–S113 (2008)
Paruolo, P., Saltelli, A., Saisana, M.: Ratings and rankings: voodoo or science? J. Roy. Statistical Society A 176(2), 1–26 (2013)
Prince, M.J., Reischies, F., Beekman, A.T., Fuhrer, R., Jonker, C., Kivela, S.L., Lawlor, B.A., Lobo, A., Magnusson, H., Fichter, M., van Oyen, H., Roelands, M., Skoog, I., Turrina, C., Copeland, J.R.: Development of the EURO-D scale - a European Union initiative to compare symptoms of depression in 14 European centres. Br. J. Psychiatry 174, 330–338 (1999)
de Ree, J., Alessie, R.: Life satisfaction and age: Dealing with underidentification in age-period-cohort models. Soc. Sci. Medicine 73, 177–182 (2011)
Rippin, N.: Considerations of efficiency and distributive justice in multidimensional poverty measurement. Doctoral Thesis. University of Göttingen (2013)
Ruger, J.P.: Health and Social Justice. Oxford University Press, New York (2010)
Schokkaert, E.: Capabilities and satisfaction with life. J. Hum. Dev. 8, 415–430 (2007)
Sen, A.: Poverty: An ordinal approach to measurement. Econom. 44, 219–31 (1976)
Sen, A.: Commodities and Capabilities. Amsterdam, North-Holland (1985)
Sen, A.: Capabilities, lists, and public reason: Continuing the conversation. Fem. Econ. 10, 77–80 (2004)
United Nation Development Programme: Human Development Report 2011, Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All. United Nations Development Programme, New York (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cavapozzi, D., Han, W. & Miniaci, R. Alternative weighting structures for multidimensional poverty assessment. J Econ Inequal 13, 425–447 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-015-9301-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-015-9301-7