Arbeitspapier
The capability dilemma in operational poverty assessment
This paper compares the standard economic welfare approach to poverty measurement to the empirical approaches proposed in the capability literature under the special focus of their suitability for operational poverty assessment, i.e. targeting and outreach evaluation. We question whether the measurement of per capita daily expenditures compared with a monetary poverty line justifiably remains the most widely used approach regarding poverty assessment. Its underlying value judgments and unsatisfactory assumptions differ considerably from those of the capability concept of poverty but the two approaches can be linked and critically compared with respect to the role of income, the conceptualisation of absolute poverty and the development of operational tools. We argue that despite the progress made in operationalizing the capability approach, there remain serious challenges when focussing on targeting and outreach evaluation and propose three alternative solutions for dealing with this capability dilemma in practice.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IAI Discussion Papers ; No. 159
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
- Subject
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Armut
Disparitätsmaß
Wohlfahrtstheorie
Theorie
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Johannsen, Julia
Zeller, Manfred
Klasen, Stephan
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research (IAI)
- (where)
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Göttingen
- (when)
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2007
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Johannsen, Julia
- Zeller, Manfred
- Klasen, Stephan
- Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research (IAI)
Time of origin
- 2007
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