Multidimensional Poverty Measurement with the Weak Focus Axiom

The present paper defines an axiomatic framework for multidimensional poverty measurement that fits a weak version of the focus axiom and is consistent with Duclos, Sahn, and Younger’s (2006) “well-being” approach of poverty identification. This slackening of the tradtional axiomatic framework is appealing for two reasons. First, regarding the issue of poverty identification, the approach is less restrictive than the traditional “union” and “intersection” views. Secondly, concerning the issue of aggregation among attributes for each individual, it allows for substitution effects between meagre and non-meagre attributes as well as the existence of varying needs considerations. As an illustration of these developments, we introduce two extensions of family of multidimensional poverty indices defined by Bourguignon and Chakravarty (2003). JEL classification: I32, C00.