From income poverty to multidimensional poverty: an international comparison

Burchi, Francesco / Nicole Rippin / Claudio E. Montenegro
External Publications (2018)

Brasília: International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth

The first Sustainable Development Goal of the 2030 Agenda calls for ending 'poverty in all its forms everywhere', therefore recognising that poverty is more than just a lack of a sufficient income. Nevertheless, some scholars argue that an income-based measure of poverty is able to sufficiently capture poverty in other dimensions as well. This claim, however, has so far not been substantiated by any cross-country empirical evidence. Currently available international indicators of multidimensional poverty suffer from several weaknesses and cannot be directly compared with the existing monetary measures of poverty. This One Pager summarises the main findings of a broader study (Burchi, Rippin, and Montenegro 2018) on poverty measurement and analysis.

About the authors

Burchi, Francesco

Development Economy

Rippin, Nicole

Economist