Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Comparative measures of multidimensional deprivation in the European Union

  • Published:
Empirical Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper proposes new fuzzy measures of monetary poverty and also non-monetary deprivation, providing an economic interpretation of the parameters involved. For non-monetary deprivation, the paper provides a step-by-step procedure: dimensions or groupings of initial items of deprivation are identified using explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses, and a weighting system is applied for the aggregation of individual items into the dimension they represent. The methodology is applied to European Union countries using European Union-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for the 2011 survey wave.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. At macro-level see Anand and Sen (1997), while at individual level see Townsend (1979).

  2. See also Cheli and Betti (1999) and Betti et al. (2002, 2004) for a longitudinal approach to poverty analysis using fuzzy sets, the book of Lemmi and Betti (2006) for further contributions on philosophy, mathematics, economics of the fuzzy set approach to poverty measurement, and the recent contributions of Belhadj (2011, 2012), Alkire and Foster (2011), Belhadj and Limam (2012) and Betti et al. (2013).

  3. The equivalised income of a household is obtained by dividing its total disposable income by the household’s equivalent size computed by using an equivalence scale which takes into account the actual size and composition of the household.

  4. Membership function (m.f.) is a quantitative specification of an individual’s or household’s degree of poverty or deprivation.

  5. The exploratory factor analysis has identified 9 dimensions as follows: items \(b1\), \(b2\), \(b3\), \(b4\) and f1 in dimension 1; items \(g1\), \(g2\) and \(g3\) in dimension 2; items \(d3\), \(d4\) and \(d5\) in dimension 3; items \(c1\) and \(c2\) in dimension 4, items \(a1\), \(a2\), \(a3\), \(a4\) and \(a5\) in dimension 5, items \(h1\), \(h2\), \(i2\) and \(i2\) in dimension 6, items \(e1\), \(e2\) and \(e3\) in dimension 7, items \(g4\) and \(g5\) in dimension 8, and finally items \(d1\) and \(d2\) in dimension 9.

  6. National income distributions have been pooled with weights in proportion to the population size for constructing the EU-level distribution.

  7. The table has been ordered according to this ratio in order to illustrate the point being made.

  8. Regional poverty rates have been computed from regional income distributions, but always using the national poverty line.

  9. By the ‘level of poverty line’ is meant the population level to which the income distribution is pooled for the purpose of defining the poverty line. In fact, different levels for the poverty line can be seen as implying a different mix of ‘relative’ and ‘absolute’ measures. By relative measures is meant measures concerning purely the distribution of income, and by absolute measures those concerning income levels.

References

  • Aassve A, Betti G, Mazzuco S, Mencarini L (2007) Marital disruption and economic well-being; a comparative analysis. J R Stat Soc Ser A 170(3):781–799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alkire S, Foster J (2011) Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. J Public Econ 95(7–8):476–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anand S, Sen AK (1997) Concepts of human development and poverty: a multidimensional perspective. Human Development Papers, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson AB (2003) Multidimensional deprivation: contrasting social welfare and counting approaches. J Econ Inequal 1:51–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson AB, Bourguignon F (1982) The comparison of multidimensional distributions of economic status. Rev Econ Stud 49:183–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson AB, Cantillon B, Marlier E, Nolan B (2002) Social indicators: The EU and social inclusion. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Belhadj B (2011) A new fuzzy unidimensional poverty index from an information theory perspective. Empir Econ 40(3):687–704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belhadj B (2012) New weighting scheme for the dimensions in multidimensional poverty indices. Econ Lett 116(3):304–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belhadj B, Limam M (2012) Unidimensional and multidimensional fuzzy poverty measures: new approach. Econ Model 29(4):995–1002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berthoud R (2004) Patterns of poverty across Europe. The Policy Press

  • Betti G, Çalik G, Karakas M (2013) Multidimensional and fuzzy measures of poverty and inequality in Turkey at National and Regional Level. In: Bérenger V, Bresson F (eds) Poverty and social exclusion around the Mediterranean Sea, economic studies in inequality, social exclusion and well-being, vol 9. Springer, New York, pp 89–108

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Betti G, Cheli B, Cambini R (2004) A statistical model for the dynamics between two fuzzy states: theory and application to poverty analysis. Metron 62(3):391–411

    Google Scholar 

  • Betti G, Cheli B, Lemmi A, Verma V (2006) Multidimensional and longitudinal poverty: an integrated fuzzy approach. In: Lemmi A, Betti G (eds) Fuzzy set approach to multidimensional poverty measurement. Springer, New York, pp 111–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Betti G, D’Agostino A, Neri L (2002) Panel regression models for measuring multidimensional poverty dynamics. Stat Methods Appl 11(3):359–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betti G, D’Agostino A, Neri L (2011) Educational mismatch of graduates: a multidimensional and fuzzy indicator. Soc Indic Res 103(3):465–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betti G, Gagliardi F, Lemmi A, Verma V (2012) Sub-national indicators of poverty and deprivation in Europe: methodology and applications. Camb J Reg Econ Soc 5(1):149–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betti G, Verma V (1999) Measuring the degree of poverty in a dynamic and comparative context: a multi-dimensional approach using fuzzy set theory. In: Proceedings ICCS-VI, vol 11, Lahore, Pakistan, August 27–31, pp 289–301

  • Betti G, Verma V (2008) Fuzzy measures of the incidence of relative poverty and deprivation: a multi-dimensional perspective. Stat Methods Appl 17(2):225–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourguignon F, Chakravarty SR (2003) The measurement of multidimensional poverty. J Econ Inequal 1:25–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cerioli A, Zani S (1990) A fuzzy approach to the measurement of poverty. In: Dagum C, Zenga M (eds) Income and wealth distribution, inequality and poverty. Springer, Berlin, pp 272–284

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chakravarty SR, Mukherjee D, Ranade R (1998) On the family of subgroup and factor decomposable measures of multidimensional poverty. Res Econ Inequal 8:175–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheli B, Betti G (1999) Fuzzy analysis of poverty dynamics on an Italian pseudo panel, 1985–1994. Metron 57:83–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheli B, Lemmi A (1995) A totally fuzzy and relative approach to the multidimensional analysis of poverty. Econ Notes 24:115–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Duclos JY, Sahn D, Younger SD (2001) Robust multidimensional poverty comparisons. Université Laval, Laval

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (2010) Europe 2020: a European Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Communication No. COM(2010) 2020, European Commission, Brussels

  • Eurostat (2002) Income, poverty and social exclusion: 2nd Report. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg

    Google Scholar 

  • Filippone A, Cheli B, D’Agostino A (2001) Addressing the interpretation and the aggregation problems in totally fuzzy and relative poverty measures. ISER Working Paper Series number 2001–22, University of Essex

  • Fusco A, Guio AC, Marlier E (2011) Income poverty and material deprivation in European countries. CEPS/INSTEAD Working Paper Series 2011–04, CEPS/INSTEAD

  • Guio AC (2009) What can be learned from deprivation indicators in Europe? Eurostat methodologies and working paper, Eurostat, Luxembourg

  • Klir GJ, Yuan B (1995) Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. New Jersey, Prentice Hall

  • Lemmi A, Betti G (eds) (2006) Fuzzy set approach to multidimensional poverty measurement. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Maasoumi E (1986) The measurement and decomposition of multidimensional inequality. Econometrica 54:771–779

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen AK (1999) Development as freedom. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend P (1979) Poverty in the United Kingdom. Allen Lane, Harmondsworth

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsui K (1985) Multidimensional generalisation of the relative and absolute inequality indices: the Atkinson–Kolm–Sen approach. J Econ Theory 67:251–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verma V, Betti G (2011) Taylor linearization sampling errors and design effects for poverty measures and other complex statistics. J Appl Stat 38(8):1549–1576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whelan CT, Layte R, Maitre B, Nolan B (2001) Income, deprivation and economic strain: an analysis of the European Community Household Panel. Eur Sociol Rev 17:357–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh LA (1965) Fuzzy sets. Inf Control 8:338–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, P.zza S. Francesco 8, 53100, Siena, Italy

    Gianni Betti, Francesca Gagliardi, Achille Lemmi & Vijay Verma

Authors
  1. Gianni Betti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Francesca Gagliardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Achille Lemmi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Vijay Verma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gianni Betti.

Appendix: List of country names abbreviations

Appendix: List of country names abbreviations

See Table 11.

Table 11 List of countries abbreviations
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Betti, G., Gagliardi, F., Lemmi, A. et al. Comparative measures of multidimensional deprivation in the European Union. Empir Econ 49, 1071–1100 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-014-0904-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-014-0904-9

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation