Publication type
Journal Article
Author
Publication date
September 15, 2014
Summary:
The measurement of poverty as 'consistent' poverty offers a solution
to one of the primary problems of poverty measurement within Social
Policy of the last three decades. Often treated as if they were
synonymous, 'indirect' measures of poverty, such as low income measures,
and 'direct' measures, such as indices of material deprivation,
identify surprisingly different people as being poor. In response to
this mismatch, a team of Irish researchers put forward a measure which
identified respondents in as being in poverty when they experienced both
a low standard of living, as measured by deprivation indicators, and a
lack of resources, as measured by a low income line. Importantly, they
argued that the two measures required an equal weight. In this paper, I
present a reconsideration of the consistent poverty measure from both
conceptual and empirical perspectives. In particular, I examine the
claim that low income and material deprivation measures should be given
an 'equal weight'. I argue that, from a conceptual perspective, the
nature of the indicators at hand means that a deprivation-led
measurement approach might be understood to align with the definition of
poverty which Nolan and Whelan outline and, from an empirical
perspective, that it is the material deprivation measure-and not the low
income measure-which is particularly effective in identifying
individuals at risk of multiple forms of deprivation. However, I argue
that greater attention needs to be given to the question of whether
indicators of material deprivation provide a sufficient measure of
material poverty and suggest that advancing the measurement of material
deprivation beyond its relatively rudimentary state represents an
important priority for poverty research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright
of Social Indicators Research is the property of Springer Science &
Business Media B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to
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express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty
is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the
original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Published in
Social Indicators Research
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 118 , p.1 -1
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0456-y
ISSN
3038300
Subject
Notes
Not held in Research Library - bibliographic reference only
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On ‘consistent’ poverty
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