conceptions of poverty comparing classifications of people
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Conceptions of Poverty Comparing classifications of people. Mariano Rojas FLACSO-México & UPAEP New Directions in Welfare Economics, Paris July 6-8, 2011. Concepts and Conceptions. Concept A vague and general idea An umbrella concept Conception Substance given to the concept - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Conceptions of PovertyComparing classifications of people
Mariano RojasFLACSO-México & UPAEP
New Directions in Welfare Economics, Paris July 6-8, 2011
Concepts and Conceptions
• Concept– A vague and general idea– An umbrella concept
• Conception– Substance given to the concept– A specific understanding– Historical and regional – May change over time and across cultures
Concepts and Conceptions
• Conceptions and its measurement– Easy task for concrete single human attributes
» Height, Weight, Hunger, Pain, Frustration, Failure
– Difficult task for non-concrete and multiple human attributes
– Constructed
• This is the case of poverty, as well as progress, democracy and others
The Poor: To Identify or to Classify?
• To identify: An incorrect approach
– Suggests» A concrete human attribute» A true figure out there» An attribute which is independent of the
researcher/classifier» Correct and incorrect measurements
• Measurements can be evaluated; How close is it to the true figure?
The Poor: To Identify or to Classify?
• To classify people as poor
• There is no true figure• There is no concrete rate to contrast criteria to• There is a classifier: classifying people as poor• The classifier: selecting the conception
» Constructed areas of social concern
Relevance of the Conception
• The relevance of the conception• Who ends up being classified as poor?• Who is subject or beneficiary of pubic policy• What kind of public policy is required• How achievements in public policy are assessed?
– A different issue• Does it matters to people?
Conceptions of Poverty
• The approach• Presumption, Imputation, Subjective
• Theoretically driven (Presumption)• Normatively driven (Imputation)• Subjective well-being driven (People’s well-being
report)
Conceptions of Poverty
• Income (Theory - Economic)• Income, Assets
• Capabilities (Normative - Imputation)• Instruments
• Multidimensional (Theory and Imputation)• Housing condition, Hunger
• Experienced (Subjective well-being)• Life satisfaction, life evaluation, affective state
Measurements of Poverty
• The measurement• Variables chosen
• Risk: conceptualization must come first• Avoid conceptualizing on the basis of measurement
• Defining thresholds• Arbitrary, many options, robustness
Measurement of Poverty
• Mexican survey• Representative• 2000 observations• 2 central states
• Income• Household per capita income• Threshold: US$ 2 dollars per day
Measurement of Poverty
• Capabilities• Short version of CMP (Anand and colleagues’) instrument• Principal components• Threshold: one StdDev beneath mean
• Multidimensional• Mexico’s definition
» Housing condition, Hunger, working benefits• Thresholds
» As defined by Mexico’s social evaluation institute
Measurement of Poverty
• Experienced• Based on subjective well-being• Different understandings: substrate of
information» Life satisfaction, life evaluation, affects
• Threshold:» Bottom of the scale
Comparing Conceptions of Poverty
• No time to argue in favor of a conception• Just to show that the issue is of relevance
• Dissonances and consonances• Do we end up classifying the same people as poor?
– To Classify ≠ To identify
Consonances and dissonances
Conception 2
Poor Non Poor
Conception 1
Poor Consonance Dissonance
Non Poor Dissonance Consonance
Dissonance in Classification
Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV CAP- POV Housing- POV Hunger- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Dissonance People in Income Poverty
Dissonance in Classification
Income- POV Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV Cap- POV Housing- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Dissonance People in Asset Poverty
Series1
Dissonance in Classification
Income- POV Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV Cap- POV Housing- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
DissonancePeople in Life-Satisfaction Poverty
Series1
Dissonance in Classification
Income- POV Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV Cap- POV Housing- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Dissonance People in Life-Appreciation Poverty
Series1
Dissonance in Classification
Income- POV Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV Cap- POV Housing- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
DissonancePeople in Capabilities Poverty
Series1
Dissonance in Classification
Income- POV Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV Cap- POV Housing- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
DissonancePeople in Housing Poverty
Series1
Dissonance in Classification
Income- POV Asset- POV LS- POV LA- POV Cap- POV Housing- POV0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
DissonancePeople in Hunger Poverty
Series1
Conclusion
• The conception matters• Great dissonances in the classification of people as
poor
– Conception precedes measurement• Further discussion on the conception• Poverty as low/lack of well-being
– What is well-being?– How do we know it?– Who is the authority to assess it and on what basis?
Conclusion
• The classifier matters» We are not identifying the poor, we are classifying people as poor» Choosing and arguing about conceptions, methodologies and
methods
– Study of the classifier» Motivations» Selection of classification criteria: conception» Incentives » Biases:
• Disciplinary compartmentalization• Perspectivism, ethnocentricism• Focus of interest, attention• Universalism
Thanks