Headcount measures of poverty are by far the most common tools for evaluating poverty and gauging progress in global development goals. The headcount ratio, or the prevalence of poverty, and the headcount, or the number of the poor, both convey tangible information about poverty. But both ignore...

For meaningful policy analysis, it is important not only to look at overall poverty, and compare countries or regions at a single point in time, but also to understand the distribution among the poor, the disparity across subgroups, and the dynamics of poverty. This extends the methodological...

The design of a poverty measure involves the selection of a set of parameters and poverty figures. In most cases the measures are estimated from sample surveys. This raises the question of how conclusive particular poverty comparisons are subject to both the set of selected parameters (or...

After a measurement methodology has been chosen, the design of poverty measures — whether unidimensional or multidimensional — require a series of normative choices. These choices relate to the space of the measure, its purpose, unit of identification and analysis, dimensions, indicators,...

This chapter provides a systematic overview of the Alkire-Foster multidimensional measurement methodology with an emphasis on the Adjusted Headcount Ratio. The chapter is divided into seven sections. The first shows how this measure combines the practical appeal of the counting tradition with...

The measurement of poverty involves identification: the fundamental step of deciding who is to be considered poor. A ‘counting approach' is one way to identify the poor in multidimensional poverty measurement, which entails the intuitive procedure of counting the number of dimensions in which...

This working paper introduces the notation and basic concepts that are used throughout the OPHI Working Papers 82-91. The Paper has five sections. First we review unidimensional poverty measurement with particular attention to the well-known Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures of income poverty as...

Headcount measures of poverty are by far the most common tools for evaluating poverty and gauging progress in global development goals. The headcount ratio, or the prevalence of poverty, and the headcount, or the number of the poor, both convey tangible information about poverty. But both ignore...

There is a growing interest on dynamic and broader concepts of deprivation such as vulnerability, which takes in to account the destitution of individuals from future shocks. We use the framework of decision making under uncertainty to arrive at a new measure of vulnerability to poverty. We...

This paper proposes a new methodology for multidimensional poverty measurement consisting of an identification method ρk that extends the traditional intersection and union approaches, and a class of poverty measures Mα. Our identification step employs two forms of cutoff: one within each...