Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches.
While there is world-wide agreement on poverty reduction as an overriding goal of development policy, there is little agreement on the definition of poverty. Four approaches to the definition and measurement of poverty are reviewed in this paper: the monetary, capability, social exclusion and partic...
| Հիմնական հեղինակներ: | , , |
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| Ձևաչափ: | Journal article |
| Լեզու: | English |
| Հրապարակվել է: |
2003
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| _version_ | 1826281565746888704 |
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| author | Laderchi, C Saith, R Stewart, F |
| author_facet | Laderchi, C Saith, R Stewart, F |
| author_sort | Laderchi, C |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | While there is world-wide agreement on poverty reduction as an overriding goal of development policy, there is little agreement on the definition of poverty. Four approaches to the definition and measurement of poverty are reviewed in this paper: the monetary, capability, social exclusion and participatory approaches. The theoretical underpinnings of the various measures and problems of operationalizing them are pointed out. It is argued that each is a construction of reality, involving numerous judgments, which are often not transparent. The different methods have different implications for policy, and also, to the extent that they point to different people as being poor, for targeting. Empirical work in Peru and India shows that there is significant lack of overlap between the methods with, for example, nearly half the population identified as in poverty according to monetary poverty but not in capability poverty, and conversely. This confirms similar findings elsewhere. Hence, the definition of poverty does matter for poverty eradication strategies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:30:43Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:7fb24ce5-e721-4de1-aa6f-f7a5db0e9db0 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:30:43Z |
| publishDate | 2003 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7fb24ce5-e721-4de1-aa6f-f7a5db0e9db02022-03-26T21:18:35ZDoes It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7fb24ce5-e721-4de1-aa6f-f7a5db0e9db0EnglishDepartment of Economics - ePrints2003Laderchi, CSaith, RStewart, FWhile there is world-wide agreement on poverty reduction as an overriding goal of development policy, there is little agreement on the definition of poverty. Four approaches to the definition and measurement of poverty are reviewed in this paper: the monetary, capability, social exclusion and participatory approaches. The theoretical underpinnings of the various measures and problems of operationalizing them are pointed out. It is argued that each is a construction of reality, involving numerous judgments, which are often not transparent. The different methods have different implications for policy, and also, to the extent that they point to different people as being poor, for targeting. Empirical work in Peru and India shows that there is significant lack of overlap between the methods with, for example, nearly half the population identified as in poverty according to monetary poverty but not in capability poverty, and conversely. This confirms similar findings elsewhere. Hence, the definition of poverty does matter for poverty eradication strategies. |
| spellingShingle | Laderchi, C Saith, R Stewart, F Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches. |
| title | Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches. |
| title_full | Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches. |
| title_fullStr | Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches. |
| title_short | Does It Matter That We Do Not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches. |
| title_sort | does it matter that we do not agree on the definition of poverty a comparison of four approaches |
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