Polarization of the Poor: Multivariate Relative Poverty Measurement Sans Frontiers

A major impediment to poverty evaluation in multivariate environments are the difficulties associated with formulating poverty frontiers. This paper proposes a new multivariate polarization measure which, in appropriate circumstances, works as a multivariate poverty measure which does not require computation of a poverty frontier. As a poverty measure it has the intuitive appeal of reflecting the degree to which societies poor and non-poor are polarized. (The measure would also have considerable application in studying multivariate convergence issues in economic growth models). The measure is exemplified in a poor-non poor country study over the period 1990-2005 based upon the joint distribution of per capita GNP and Life Expectancy. The results suggest that as a group the world’s poor are experiencing diminished poverty polarization, however within the world’s poor the African Nations are experiencing increased poverty polarization.