The ‘Double Fuzzy Set’ Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: With a Focus on the Health Dimension

Abstract

In more recent times, there is an increasing consensus in the field of development study to view poverty as a multidimensional deprivation beyond the more commonly used monetary perspective. Although the multidimensional poverty measurement is gaining more acceptance among policy makers, it is still based on the clear distinction between the poor and non-poor through an arbitrary threshold. One alternative to this shortcoming is offered by a multidimensional poverty measurement with a fuzzy-set approach in which it is possible to recognize deprivations as a matter of degree. The integrated fuzzy approach allows this possibility, although there is an unexplored opportunity of recognising that two or more dimensions can be attributed to a single item or attribute. This paper aims to contribute to this strand of research by introducing a ‘Double-Fuzzy’ approach. The methodology is applied to Tunisia using the Tunisian National Survey on Household Budget and Consumption (HBS) 2015.