1. Poverty as capability deprivation: Making poverty comparisons in an unequal world
Presentation at CODESRIA Social Policy in Africa conference,
Pretoria
20-22 November 2017
Dr Rod Hick
Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Cardiff University
Contact:

2. Outline Beyond ‘two worlds’ of poverty measurement
Poverty as Capability Deprivation as a conceptual framework
The multidimensional ‘turn’ in poverty analysis
One question and one area requiring additional work
How much complexity?
The idiosyncrasies of poverty measures
Conclusions

3. Beyond ‘two worlds’ of poverty measurement
Relative poverty lines in the Global North (esp. Europe), absolute lines in the Global South
Silos of analysis and absence of comparisons between Global North and South
Silos might be challenged by unified framework
Absolute line would imply near-zero poverty in GN
Relative line has tendency to harmonise poverty rates, ignore real differences income levels

4. Beyond ‘two worlds’ of poverty measurement
No reason why, in the relative framework, poverty in Britain not greater than Bulgaria, or even than in Burkina Faso (Hick, 2014).

5. Beyond ‘two worlds’ of poverty measurement
Unidimensional measure insufficiently complex

6. Poverty as Capability Deprivation
Two concepts of poverty and deprivation
Poverty contains a focus on both absolute and relative perspectives
Deprivation focusses on the non-economic domains (e.g. a person’s achievements in health, education, housing, etc).
An emphasis, where possible, on capabilities and functionings:
Capabilities: what a person can do or be (real opportunities)
Functionings: what a person does actually achieve (outcomes)
But, a recognition that sometimes income may be the best available proxy (Burchardt and Hick, 2017).

7. The multidimensional ‘turn’ within poverty measurement

8. How much complexity do we need?
Sometimes suggested that MD nature of the capability approach might make it unworkable
Complexity sometimes follows from the ethical orientation of the approach
Value of parsimony dependent on purpose
Intercountry development levels (McGillivray)
Framework for understanding inequalities in a country (e.g. Oxfam & LSE)

9. The idiosyncrasies of poverty measurement
Alkire et al. (2014) analyse multidimensional measures of poverty during the Great Recession ( ) using EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions:
Key finding: Multidimensional poverty falls y-o-y, despite the crisis
Hick, R. (2016) The coupling of disadvantages: Analysis of same dataset in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2013.
Key finding: multidimensional poverty falls , and then rises sharply as crisis hits.
Problem!

10. The idiosyncrasies of poverty measurement: The death of educational disadvantage
Education not included as a dimension in my study

11. The idiosyncrasies of poverty measurement: The death of educational disadvantage
Importance of idiosyncratic factors

12. Conclusions
Multiple measures of poverty are required to make sense of the complexity of living standards
Poverty as Capability Deprivation can provide a framework to help us to make poverty and deprivation comparisons
We need to consider how much complexity we really need?
When is a focus on poverty sufficient? When is it not?
We need a deeper understanding of the idiosyncratic aspects of poverty measures.

13. Thank you!
References
Hick, R. (2014), ‘Poverty as Capability Deprivation: Conceptualising and measuring poverty in contemporary Europe’, European Journal of Sociology, 55, 3, pp. 295 – 323.
Hick, R. (2016), ‘Material poverty and multiple deprivation in Britain: The distinctiveness of multidimensional assessment’, Journal of Public Policy, 36, 2, pp
Hick, R. (2016), ‘The coupling of disadvantages: Material poverty and multiple deprivation in Europe before and after the Great Recession’, European Journal of Social Security, 19, 1, pp2 – 29.
Burchardt, T. and Hick, R. (2017), ‘Inequality, advantage and the capability approach’, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, FirstView.
All available open access at