Poor Children in Rich Households and Vice Versa: A Blurred Picture or Hidden Realities?

Abstract

An expanding evidence base suggests that children experiencing monetary and multidimensional poverty are not the same. This article breaks new ground by providing a unique mixed methods investigation of drivers of child poverty mismatch in Ethiopia and Vietnam, considering the role of measurement error and individualistic and structural factors. The analysis capitalises on large-scale secondary quantitative panel data and combines this with purposively collected primary qualitative data in both countries. It finds that factors at the household and structural level can mediate the effects of monetary poverty in terms of multidimensional poverty and vice versa, but that the size and sign of these effects are specific to place and time. The policy mix aiming to reduce all forms of child poverty need to be targeted on the basis of a multidimensional assessment of poverty and reflect the complex and contextspecific interactions between determinants of child poverty.Une base de données croissante suggère que les enfants qui connaissent une pauvreté monétaire sont différents de ceux qui connaissent une pauvreté multidimensionnelle. Cet article ouvre une nouvelle voie en fournissant une analyse unique sur les facteurs entrainant un déséquilibre de la pauvreté infantile en É thiopie et au Vietnam, en utilisant des méthodes mixtes et en considérant le rôle de l'erreur de mesure et des facteurs individualistes et structurels. L'analyse s'appuie sur des données d'un panel quantitatif secondaire à grande échelle et les combines avec des données qualitatives primaires recueillies délib-érément dans les deux pays. Elle constate que les facteurs au niveau des ménages et de la structure peuvent agir comme médiateurs des effets de la pauvreté monétaire en termes de pauvreté multidimensionnelle et vice et versa, mais que le taille et le signe de ces effets sont spécifiques au lieu et au temps. Le dosage des politiques visant à réduire toutes les formes de pauvreté infantile doit être ciblé sur la base d'une évaluation multidimensionnelle de la pauvreté et refléter les interactions complexes et contextuelles entre les déterminants de la pauvreté infantile.

Measurement of Multidimensional Child Poverty

“…Even though poverty has traditionally been associated with the lack of a certain income, there is a growing literature discussing the theoretical and methodological shortcomings of monetary vis-àvis nonmonetary approaches (Bourguignon and Chakravarty 2003;Roelen and Gassmann 2008;Roelen 2018). If we were to draw the different approaches to poverty on one "welfare measurement continuum," we would have something similar to Fig.…”

How effective are cash transfers in mitigating shocks for vulnerable children? Evidence on the impact of the Lesotho CGP on multiple deprivation

“…We analyse the impact of the Lesotho Child Grant (CGP) on a multidimensional index of deprivation for school-aged children, and we operationalize the concept of child poverty using a rights-based approach (Gordon et al, 2003;de Neubourg et al, 2012). We use a measure of multidimensional deprivation to assess children's wellbeing, as it is increasingly recognized that household-based measures of monetary poverty do not necessarily capture children's experiences of deprivation in areas key to their development and well-being (Roelen and Gassmann 2008;Roelen 2018). Furthermore, evidence shows how children in rural areas are consistently more deprived than children in urban areas, even when their families are not monetarily poor (UNICEF Malawi, 2016, UNICEF Tanzania, 2016 The CGP is a large-scale national unconditional CT programme targeted to reach the poorest households with children.…”

Single Versus Multiple Deprivations Among Children in India

“…Roelen (2017) found that overlap between monetary and multidimensional child poverty is least, which suggests both the measure capture types of poverty. In another study, Rolen (2018) found that individual-level factors are important determinates for the gap between monetary and multidimensional child poverty measures. In this background, the paper measures the extent of child poverty in Indian states by following the modified Bristol method and the multidimensional poverty approach and compares the result with monetary poverty.…”