A Different Perspective on Poverty in Lao PDR: Multidimensional Poverty in Lao PDR for the Years 2002/2003 and 2007/2008

This paper presents an indicator for measuring multidimensional poverty in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic applying the Alkire–Foster methodology to the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey 2002/2003 and 2007/2008. We calculated a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that includes three dimen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social indicators research 2016-03, Vol.126 (2), p.483-502
Main Authors: Bader, Christoph, Bieri, Sabin, Wiesmann, Urs, Heinimann, Andreas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to education
Antipoverty programs
Censuses
Consumption
Decision making
Deprivation
Education
Expenditures
Food
Food preparation
Health education
Human Geography
Income
Inequality
Laos
Low income groups
Measurement
Microeconomics
Nutrition
Poverty
Public Health
Quality of life
Quality of Life Research
Resource Materials
Rural areas
Rural poverty
Rural Urban Differences
Social conditions & trends
Social Sciences
Sociology
Standard of living
Sustainable Development
Urban areas
Urban poverty
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Summary:This paper presents an indicator for measuring multidimensional poverty in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic applying the Alkire–Foster methodology to the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey 2002/2003 and 2007/2008. We calculated a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that includes three dimensions: education, health, and standard of living. Making use of the MPI’s decomposability, we analyse how much each of the different dimensions and its respective indicators contribute to the overall MPI. We find a marked reduction in the multidimensional poverty headcount ratio over the study period, regardless of how the indicators are weighted or how the deprivation and poverty cut-offs are set. This reduction is based on improvements regarding all indicators except cooking fuel and nutrition. We observe no significant reduction in the intensity of poverty, however; there are wide disparities between the country’s regions and between urban and rural areas. The proportion of poor people in rural areas is more than twice as high as that in urban areas. By complementing the traditional income-based poverty measure, we hope to provide useful information that can support knowledge-based decision-making for poverty alleviation.
ISSN:0303-8300
1573-0921
DOI:10.1007/s11205-015-0900-2