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Notes
- 1.
These statistics are based on the international $1/day of per capita income poverty line expressed in 1985 PPP values (World Bank 1990). If one uses a slightly higher poverty line of $2/day of income, the estimates would increase to 75 percent in South Asia and 74 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank 2004).
- 2.
Given a much higher level of living standard in high income developing countries, the $2/day income poverty standard would be more appropriate.
- 3.
This was based on the 1998 data using the poverty lines defined as the 60 percent of the median income widely embraced in much of Europe (Immervoll et al. 2006).
- 4.
In South Asia, for example, poverty headcount ratio declined over eight percent following both national and international ($1/day) poverty lines in the past two decades alone (Wagle 2007a).
- 5.
No matter whether the particular concern is one of income, consumption, or welfare, the issue revolves around economic well-being. Although economic well-being can be, and has been, defined variously, at the most fundamental level it is about avoiding human deprivation or about having adequate means for survival. See, for example, Citro and Michael (1995), Hagenaars (1991), Lipton (1983), MacPherson and Silburn (1998), and Wodon (1997) for details.
- 6.
See Alkire (2002), Nussbaum (2000, 2006), Sen (1985a, b, 1987, 1992, 1999) and UNDP (1996, 1997, 2000a, b) for details.
- 7.
See, for example, Cannan (1997), de Haan (1997, 1998), Silver (1994), and Strobel (1996).
- 8.
Because some people do not choose to use the input measures to enhance their quality of life as defined by policymakers, it is unfair to look at the outcome measures of quality of life to assess poverty. While some have attempted to use the outcome measures to assess quality of life or poverty, Sen (1985a, 1987) argues against such practice, for people attach different values to different quality of life outcomes. The fact that some people choose to fast for religious purposes, despite ability to afford food, does not mean, for example, that they are poor even if it leads to a poor health status.
- 9.
Statistics show that the distribution of consumption expenditure in Nepal is the most unequal in South Asia, as indicted by a jump of 17 points in its Gini coefficient during the past two decades to 47 in 2004 (Wagle 2007b). The next economically unequal country in this region, India, had a Gini coefficient of 36 for the comparable period.
- 10.
The progress in reducing the absolute income poverty has been remarkable in Nepal especially during the last decade. During this period alone, the poverty headcount ratio-which measures the number of people in poverty relative to the size of the population-declined 15 percentage points to 24 percent following the international poverty line of $1/day of income and 11 percentage points to 31 percent following the national poverty line (Wagle 2007a).
- 11.
In the United States, for example, over 12 percent of the population was identified as the poor in 2004 following the official poverty line (Census Bureau 2005).
- 12.
‘Social inclusion’ is used as the antonym for ‘social exclusion’ for its positive tone and consistency with ‘economic well-being’ and ‘capability.’ Alternatives to social inclusion would be social integration or social incorporation. While some (Glorieux 1999; Silver 1994, 1995; Silver and Miller 2003) use social integration for its more straightforward connotation, my motivation was to find the closest antonym for social exclusion so that a more direct corollary could be maintained.
- 13.
The specific thresholds for the unidimensional poverty categorization include the 10 and 30 percent absolute poverty targets (percentage of the population that are considered poor using the existing income or consumption based approaches) and the standard relative poverty criterion defined as 50 percent of the median score.
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Wagle, U. (2008). Introduction. In: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement. Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being, vol 4. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75875-6_1
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