Measuring Poverty Through Capabilities: Preliminary Results of a Research in Italy

Abstract:     
Our intervention will be focused on a research on poverty that the National Research Council has been conducting for three years. Poverty has been considered from a multidimensional perspective, taking into account, in addition to the traditional aspects of income and consumptions, also socio-psychological aspects, such as, for example, people’s subjective perception of their own status, impoverishing factors, and social capital. As a preliminary step for a new data collection that has been completed, the researchers of the NRC have defined a list of dimensions related to well-being and deprivation, from the point of view of senian capabilities’ approach. The presentation will show preliminary analysis of data, which have mainly focused on the definition of profiles related to specific socio-demographic characteristics of respondents and what emerges from their answers.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 8

Keywords: Capabilities, functionings, poverty, socio-economic status perception, multidimensional approach

Accepted Paper Series