• Defining poverty

Defining poverty

Conventional definitions of poverty describe it as an economic condition. Contrarily, this paper describes poverty as comprising of subjective and multi-dimensional elements. Authors address two key issues in policy-oriented poverty research:

• poverty as an individual feeling, rather than an objective status
• poverty as comprising of several domains of life where being poor in one domain increases the probability of being poor in another
  

Key findings include:

• any kind of subjective poverty can be defined using the life domain concept
• subjective feelings of poverty can be explained by measurable objective variables
• poverty can be measured without an explanatory variable
• satisfaction questions can be answered by almost any individual and can ask about intangibles determinants of poverty
  

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend