A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement

Multidimensional poverty measures are increasingly used in practice even though they face strong criticism and generate longlasting debates. These contentions primarily find their origin in the divergence between standard poverty identification pra...

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Main Author: Decerf, Benoit
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099231506092230051/IDU0bcbf5f7809dfb04dbe082e603ac11ae96b07
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37520
id okr-10986-37520
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-375202022-06-11T05:10:37Z A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement Decerf, Benoit MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY MEASURE WELFARIST DEFINITION OF POVERTY NATURE OF WELL-BEING WELL-BEING WELL-BEING ACCOUNTING POVERTY DEFINITION POVERTY MEASUREMENT INEQUITY Multidimensional poverty measures are increasingly used in practice even though they face strong criticism and generate longlasting debates. These contentions primarily find their origin in the divergence between standard poverty identification practices and a welfarist definition of the poor. This paper fills this gap by constructing a poverty measurement theory that (i) adopts a welfarist definition of the poor, (ii) acknowledges that the relevant welfare function is only partially known and (iii) encompasses both market and non-market dimensions of well-being. The theory shows that standard identification practices are not flexible enough in order to properly account for the multidimensional nature of well-being. This nature implies that an individual is poor when she experiences an extremely low outcome in some dimension or/and when she cumulates moderately low outcomes in several dimensions. The paper proposes a simple refinement that better reflects this insight. The paper uses the theory in order to provide answers to several longlasting debates. The theory provides a conceptual foundation from which practitioners may derive guidance for the many choices they face. 2022-06-10T16:51:40Z 2022-06-10T16:51:40Z 2022-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099231506092230051/IDU0bcbf5f7809dfb04dbe082e603ac11ae96b07 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37520 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY MEASURE
WELFARIST DEFINITION OF POVERTY
NATURE OF WELL-BEING
WELL-BEING
WELL-BEING ACCOUNTING
POVERTY DEFINITION
POVERTY MEASUREMENT
INEQUITY
spellingShingle MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY MEASURE
WELFARIST DEFINITION OF POVERTY
NATURE OF WELL-BEING
WELL-BEING
WELL-BEING ACCOUNTING
POVERTY DEFINITION
POVERTY MEASUREMENT
INEQUITY
Decerf, Benoit
A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement
description Multidimensional poverty measures are increasingly used in practice even though they face strong criticism and generate longlasting debates. These contentions primarily find their origin in the divergence between standard poverty identification practices and a welfarist definition of the poor. This paper fills this gap by constructing a poverty measurement theory that (i) adopts a welfarist definition of the poor, (ii) acknowledges that the relevant welfare function is only partially known and (iii) encompasses both market and non-market dimensions of well-being. The theory shows that standard identification practices are not flexible enough in order to properly account for the multidimensional nature of well-being. This nature implies that an individual is poor when she experiences an extremely low outcome in some dimension or/and when she cumulates moderately low outcomes in several dimensions. The paper proposes a simple refinement that better reflects this insight. The paper uses the theory in order to provide answers to several longlasting debates. The theory provides a conceptual foundation from which practitioners may derive guidance for the many choices they face.
format Working Paper
author Decerf, Benoit
author_facet Decerf, Benoit
author_sort Decerf, Benoit
title A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement
title_short A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement
title_full A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement
title_fullStr A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement
title_full_unstemmed A Welfarist Theory Unifying Monetary and Non-Monetary Poverty Measurement
title_sort welfarist theory unifying monetary and non-monetary poverty measurement
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099231506092230051/IDU0bcbf5f7809dfb04dbe082e603ac11ae96b07
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37520
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