Counting the Poor New Thinking About European Poverty Measures and Lessons for the United States

by Besharov, Douglas J.; Couch, Kenneth A.

• ISBN13: 9780199860586
• ISBN10: 0199860580
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The poverty rate is one of the most visible ways in which nations measure the economic well-being of their low-income citizens. To gauge whether a person is poor, European states often focus on a person's relative position in the income distribution to measure poverty while the United States looks at a fixed-income threshold that represents a lower relative standing in the overall distribution to gauge. In Europe, low income is perceived as only one aspect of being socially excluded, so that examining other relative dimensions of family and individual welfare is important. This broad emphasis on relative measures of well-being that extend into non-pecuniary aspects of people's lives does not always imply that more people would ultimately be counted as poor. This is particularly true if one must be considered poor in multiple dimensions to be considered poor, in sharp contrast to the American emphasis on income as the sole dimension. With contributions from the world's foremost authorities on income and social measurement, the book provides detailed discussions of specific issues from a European perspective followed by commentary from American observers. The volume considers (1) current standards of poverty measurement in the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, (2) challenges in extending those measures to account for the value of the provision of in-kind and cash benefits from the government, (3) the interaction of poverty measures with social assistance, (4) non-income but monetary measures of poverty, and (5) multi-dimensional measures of poverty. The result is a definitive reference for poverty researchers and policymakers seeking to disengage politics from measurement.

Author Biography

Douglas J. Besharov, JD, is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

Kenneth A. Couch, PhD, is Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut.

Table of Contents

In Memoriam: Joachim R. Frick (1962-2011)	p. vii
Contributors	p. xi
Introduction	p. 3
European Measures of Income, Poverty, and Inequality
The OECD Approach to Measuring Income Distribution and Poverty	p. 27
Income Indicators for the EUÆs Social Inclusion Strategy	p. 59
Deconstructing European Poverty Measures	p. 79
Broadening Measures of Income and Other Financial Resources
Accounting for the Distributional Effects of Noncash Public Benefits	p. 95
Accounting for Imputed and Capital Income Flows	p. 117
Accounting for Employee Benefits	p. 143
Impressionistic Realism: A European Focus on US Poverty Measurement	p. 161
Income Levels for Social Assistance and Their Behavioral Effects
Minimum-Income Benefits in OECD Countries	p. 171
Social Assistance Schemes in Developing Countries	p. 211
Europe's Other Poverty Measures: Absolute Thresholds Underlying Social Assistance	p. 235
Nonincome Monetary Measures
Asset-Based Measurement of Poverty	p. 245
Consumption-Based Measures in Developing Nations: Lessons from Brazil	p. 273
Alternatives to Income-Based Measures of Poverty	p. 291
Multidimensional Measures
Developing and Learning from EU Measures of Social Inclusion	p. 299
Using Nonmonetary Deprivation Indicators to Analyze European Poverty and Social Exclusion	p. 343
Poverty Redefined as Low Consumption and Low Wealth, Not Just Low Income: Psychological Consequences in Australia and Germany	p. 363
Anomalies in European Measures of Poverty and Social Exclusion	p. 389
Conclusion
New Comparative Measures of Income, Material Deprivation, and Well-Being	p. 399
Index	p. 409
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