Defining Poverty in the Developing World

Four different approaches to poverty and the developing world– monetary, capabilities, social exclusion and participatory–are compared and contrasted.

Despite increasing acceptance that poverty is multidimensional, most policy work adopts a monetary definition. Using data for India and Peru, the authors compare four different approaches to poverty analysis at a theoretical and empirical level. Defining Poverty in the Developing World compares and contrasts monetary, capabilities, social exclusion and participatory approaches in a highly informative manner. The research elucidates the implications for measuring poverty and for policy, concluding that the approach chosen does make a marked difference to conclusions drawn.

FRANCES STEWART is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, Oxford University, UK. A pre-eminent development economist, she was named one of fifty outstanding technological leaders for 2003 by Scientific American.
RUHI SAITH qualified as a medical doctor and has a D.Phil in medicine from Oxford University, UK. Her research interests and experience are in the multi-dimensional aspects of poverty and anti-poverty policy. She has worked on research projects with the UN, UNDP, UNRISD, the World Bank and Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, UK. She is currently working with the Planning Commission of the Government of India.
BARBARA HARRISS-WHITE is Director of the Department of International Development, Professor of Development Studies and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University, UK. Trained in agricultural and development economics, she has focused on two fields of research in India since 1969: the political economy of agrarian markets and aspects of deprivation.

Acknowledgements * Introduction–F.Stewart, C.R.Laderchi & R.Saith * The Monetary Approach to Poverty: A Survey of Concepts and Methods–C.R.Laderchi * Capabilities: The Concept and Its Implementation–R.Saith * Social Exclusion: The Concept and Application to Developing Countries–R.Saith * Participatory Methods in the Analysis of Poverty: A Critical Review–C.R.Laderchi * Poverty in India: A Comparison of Different Approaches–R.Saith with A.Sharma * Different Concepts of Poverty–S.Franco * Destitution in India and Peru–B.Harriss-White * Alternative Realities? Different Concepts of Poverty, their Empirical Consequences and Policy Implications: Overview and Conclusions–F.Stewart, R.Saith & B.Harriss-White * Bibliography * Index