Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 

Deprivation scales usually cover some but not all aspects of poverty. Missing dimensions could affect who is and is not identified as poor. Despite its importance, whether missing dimensions affect the measurement of poverty has not been empirically examined in the EU context. Such an examination re...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bedük, S
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2020
_version_ 1797108899600400384
author Bedük, S
author_facet Bedük, S
author_sort Bedük, S
collection OXFORD
description Deprivation scales usually cover some but not all aspects of poverty. Missing dimensions could affect who is and is not identified as poor. Despite its importance, whether missing dimensions affect the measurement of poverty has not been empirically examined in the EU context. Such an examination requires data on missing dimensions that existing surveys do not usually collect. In this article, I get around this problem with an innovative design and using the rich content of the British Household Panel Survey (1999-2008). I use perceived financial inadequacy as a proxy for poverty and show that, independent of the deprivation status, having a need in healthcare, childcare, social care, or education increases the risk of reporting financial inadequacy. The main explanations for these effects are extra spending and reduced earnings of the families (as a response to having extra needs), and not other biases that might arise from using a self-assessed proxy measure such as scale heterogeneity, personality traits, state dependence, anticipations, or psychological negativity. These findings demonstrate the need for more comprehensive measures. Unless relevant indicators of missing dimensions (e.g. cost-related unmet needs in healthcare) are included in the analysis, deprivation scales might fail to identify some people experiencing poverty.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T07:34:29Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:274c6763-db6d-4870-8db2-f9ae2214dcd3
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T07:34:29Z
publishDate 2020
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:274c6763-db6d-4870-8db2-f9ae2214dcd32023-02-23T12:25:21ZMissing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation  Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:274c6763-db6d-4870-8db2-f9ae2214dcd3EnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2020Bedük, SDeprivation scales usually cover some but not all aspects of poverty. Missing dimensions could affect who is and is not identified as poor. Despite its importance, whether missing dimensions affect the measurement of poverty has not been empirically examined in the EU context. Such an examination requires data on missing dimensions that existing surveys do not usually collect. In this article, I get around this problem with an innovative design and using the rich content of the British Household Panel Survey (1999-2008). I use perceived financial inadequacy as a proxy for poverty and show that, independent of the deprivation status, having a need in healthcare, childcare, social care, or education increases the risk of reporting financial inadequacy. The main explanations for these effects are extra spending and reduced earnings of the families (as a response to having extra needs), and not other biases that might arise from using a self-assessed proxy measure such as scale heterogeneity, personality traits, state dependence, anticipations, or psychological negativity. These findings demonstrate the need for more comprehensive measures. Unless relevant indicators of missing dimensions (e.g. cost-related unmet needs in healthcare) are included in the analysis, deprivation scales might fail to identify some people experiencing poverty.
spellingShingle Bedük, S
Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 
title Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 
title_full Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 
title_fullStr Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 
title_full_unstemmed Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 
title_short Missing dimensions of poverty? Calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation 
title_sort missing dimensions of poverty calibrating deprivation scales using perceived financial situation
work_keys_str_mv AT beduks missingdimensionsofpovertycalibratingdeprivationscalesusingperceivedfinancialsituation