Volume 23, Number 2 (Spring) 1988
Hagenaars, Aldi and Klaas de Vos. 1988. "The Definition and Measurement of Poverty." Journal of Human Resources 23(2):211-221.
Both Poverty research and social policy employ a variety of poverty definitions. The choice of one specific definition has major consequences for the resulting poverty population. This paper uses eight different definitions of poverty to determine who is poor, using a 1983 Dutch sample of more than 12,000 households. Poverty according to each of these definitions is compared over different subgroups. The relevance of the choice between definitions for social policy is shown by the presentation of poverty percentages according to the various definitions, which vary widely.
Hagenaars is a professor of economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; De Vos is also a professor of economics at Erasmus. This paper is part of the Income Evaluation Project. The authors thank Bernard Van Praag for his stimulating comments. Financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment is gratefully acknowledged. All responsibility remains with the authors.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X