Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries

Diego Battiston; Guillermo Cruces; Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva; Maria Ana Lugo; Maria Emma Santos

doi:10.1007/s11205-013-0249-3

Social Indicators Research

June 2013, Volume 112, Issue 2, pp 291–314

Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries

Authors
Authors and affiliations

Diego Battiston
Guillermo Cruces
Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva
Maria Ana Lugo
Maria Emma SantosEmail author

Article

First Online:: 19 March 2013

Accepted:: 13 January 2013

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-013-0249-3

Cite this article as:: Battiston, D., Cruces, G., Lopez-Calva, L.F. et al. Soc Indic Res (2013) 112: 291. doi:10.1007/s11205-013-0249-3

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Abstract

This paper studies multidimensional poverty for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay for the period 1992–2006. The approach overcomes the limitations of the two traditional methods of poverty analysis in Latin America (income-based and unmet basic needs) by combining income with five other dimensions: school attendance for children, education of the household head, sanitation, water and shelter. The results allow a fuller understanding of the evolution of poverty in the selected countries. Over the study period, El Salvador, Brazil, Mexico and Chile experienced significant reductions in multidimensional poverty. In contrast, in urban Uruguay there was a small reduction in multidimensional poverty, while in urban Argentina the estimates did not change significantly. El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico, and rural areas of Chile display significantly higher and more simultaneous deprivations than urban areas of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In all countries, deprivation in access to proper sanitation and education of the household head are the highest contributors to overall multidimensional poverty.

Keywords

Multidimensional poverty measurement Counting approach Latin America Unsatisfied basic needs Rural and urban areas

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Copyright information

Authors and Affiliations

Diego Battiston
- 1
- 2
Guillermo Cruces
- 2
- 3
- 4
Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva
- 5
Maria Ana Lugo
- 6
- 7
Maria Emma Santos
- 3
- 7
- 8
Email author

1.Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)London School of Economics (LSE)LondonUK
2.Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Facultad de Ciencias Economicas (FCE)Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP)La PlataArgentina
3.Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentinahttp://www.conicet.gov.ar/
4.Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)BonnAlemania
5.Regional Bureau for Latin America and The CaribbeanUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP)New YorkUSA
6.Economics DepartmentUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
7.Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Queen Elizabeth House (QEH), Oxford Department of International DevelopmentUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
8.Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur (IIESS), Departamento de EconomíaUniversidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)Bahía BlancaArgentina

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Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries

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