A complex net of intertwined complements: Measuring interdimensional dependence among the poor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel multidimensional poverty measure that accounts for interdimensional dependence, overcoming the limitations of traditional methods that assume independence among poverty dimensions.

Contribution

It presents a new methodology based on geometric and networking concepts that captures dependence among poverty dimensions while maintaining axiomatic consistency.

Findings

The new measure incorporates interdimensional dependence effectively.

It remains consistent with established axiomatic frameworks.

The general form includes previous measures as special cases.

Abstract

The choice of appropriate measures of deprivation, identification and aggregation of poverty has been a challenge for many years. The works of Sen, Atkinson and others have been the cornerstone for most of the literature on poverty measuring. Recent contributions have focused in what we now know as multidimensional poverty measuring. Current aggregation and identification measures for multidimensional poverty make the implicit assumption that dimensions are independent of each other, thus ignoring the natural dependence between them. In this article a variant of the usual method of deprivation measuring is presented. It allows the existence of the forementioned connections by drawing from geometric and networking notions. This new methodology relies on previous identification and aggregation methods, but with small modifications to prevent arbitrary manipulations. It is also proved that this measure still complies with the axiomatic framework of its predecessor. Moreover, the general form of latter can be considered a particular case of this new measure, although this identification is not unique.