Poverty Analysis in the European Union: A Fuzzy Multidimensional Approach

This paper discusses a Fuzzy Multidimensional approach which is developed from a completely relative notion of deprivation, and reports the results obtained from an analysis on the European Community Household Panel. Within this unified framework the classic monetary analysis can be coherently integrated by auxiliary variables which proxy other impoverishment traits such as the possession of durable goods, housing conditions and financial status. The all-comprehensive information-set allows to measure various aspects of what is commonly understood as poverty by identifying different refinements within the notion of poverty itself, however the interconnection between these different aspects still needs to be untangled.