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Conceptions of Poverty Comparing classifications of people

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

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Conceptions of Poverty Comparing classifications of people

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  1. Conceptions of PovertyComparing classifications of people Mariano Rojas FLACSO-México & UPAEP New Directions in Welfare Economics, Paris July 6-8, 2011

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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?

  5. 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

  6. 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?

  7. Conceptions of Poverty • The approach • Presumption, Imputation, Subjective • Theoretically driven (Presumption) • Normatively driven (Imputation) • Subjective well-being driven (People’s well-being report)

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. Measurement of Poverty • Mexican survey • Representative • 2000 observations • 2 central states • Income • Household per capita income • Threshold: US$ 2 dollars per day

  11. 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

  12. Measurement of Poverty • Experienced • Based on subjective well-being • Different understandings: substrate of information • Life satisfaction, life evaluation, affects • Threshold: • Bottom of the scale

  13. 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

  14. Consonances and dissonances

  15. Dissonance in Classification

  16. Dissonance in Classification

  17. Dissonance in Classification

  18. Dissonance in Classification

  19. Dissonance in Classification

  20. Dissonance in Classification

  21. Dissonance in Classification

  22. Conclusion • Theconceptionmatters • Great dissonancesin theclassification of people as poor • Conception precedes measurement • Furtherdiscussionontheconception • Poverty as low/lack of well-being • Whatiswell-being? • How do weknowit? • Whoistheauthoritytoassessit and onwhatbasis?

  23. Conclusion • The classifier matters • We are notidentifyingthepoor, we are classifyingpeople 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

  24. Thanks

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