Alternative vs. current measures of material deprivation at EU level: What differences does it make?

Guio, Gordon and Marlier (2012) have proposed a theory based analytical framework for developing robust (i.e. suitable, reliable, valid and additive) aggregate indicators that could be used for analytical and monitoring purposes at national and EU levels. They have applied this framework to EU-SILC data collected in 2009, and as a result of their systematic item by item analysis carried out at both EU and country levels, they have suggested an alternative material deprivation (MD) indicator which consists of 13 items – six are common to the current 9-item MD indicator and seven are new. This paper discusses the impact of the move from the current EU definition of MD to this alternative 13-item indicator – impact in terms of the size of the population deprived throughout the EU, impact in terms of the composition (socio-demographic characteristics) of this population as well as impact on the Europe 2020 social inclusion target.