Alessio Fusco

Rasch Model and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement

The topic of the multidimensionality of poverty is currently at the heart of many theoretical, empirical and institutional debates in the European Union (Atkinson, Cantillon, Marlier, Nolan, 2002). Despite this increasing interest, there seems to be no consensus on how to define and measure multidimensional poverty. Key aspects of this debate are the questions of the dimensionality of the poverty concept and the nature of the relationship between the items measuring each dimension. In this chapter we apply the Rasch model in order to illustrate its contribution to analysing these questions.

Building a Material Deprivation Index in a Multinational Context: Lessons from the EU Experience

Social indicators can play an important role not only at national but also international level, in making it possible to compare the living conditions in different countries according to a set of commonly agreed criteria. For them to play this role in a multinational context, their construction needs to follow methodological principles that ensure their relevance and comparability across countries. This chapter argues that the Euro-Mediterranean countries can benefit from the European Union (EU) experience in building a common framework for monitoring, understanding and also fighting poverty and social exclusion. As a concrete example, it discusses methodological issues raised by the construction of indicators on material deprivation, defined as an enforced lack of a combination of items depicting some aspects of living conditions related to housing conditions, possession of durables and capacity to afford basic requirements. More specifically, this chapter focuses on the selection of items, their dimensional structure, their aggregation in a synthetic measure and their weighting. It also puts in perspective material deprivation and income-based poverty indicators to emphasise the complementarity of the two approaches when applied to a group of countries with heterogeneous standards of living. It covers 24 EU countries.

Pauvreté et inégalités en Belgique. Quelques éléments de comparaison internationale

In this paper, the most relevant social indicators agreed upon at European Union (EU) level are used to briefly describe the performances of Belgium in fighting poverty and inequalities, and also to compare these performances with those of the other EU Member States. To fine-tune the description made of these Belgian performances, we bring into our analysis some national indicators which address important areas currently not covered by the EU set of indicators. Finally, we also portray the social situation in Belgium at a regional level within the limits allowed by the available data. JEL: I32