A multi-criteria fuzzy approach for analyzing poverty structure

Poverty is a multidimensional, fuzzy and complex phenomenon that cannot be faithfully represented by mono-dimensional monetary indicators. In the last years, much research has been devoted to tackle poverty fuzziness, while less attention has been paid to poverty complexity. In this paper, we employ Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Analysis to provide a structural representation of poverty, in terms of the pattern of implications existing among different poverty descriptors related to specific scenarios. We show how fuzzy relation theory and partially ordered set techniques are effective in representing complex relational structures and provide new insights into multidimensional poverty. An application of Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Analysis to poverty data concerning two Italian regions is also provided, based on EU-SILC data for year 2004.