Conditions for the most robust poverty comparisons using the Alkire-Foster Family of Measures: OPHI working paper no. 44b

In the burgeoning literature on multidimensional poverty indices, the Alkire-Foster (AF) measures stand out for their resilience in identifying the multidimensionally poor with cut-off criteria covering the spectrum from the union approach to the intersection approach. The intuitiveness and easy applicability of the measures’ identification and aggregation methods are reflected in the increasing use of the AF measures in poverty measurement, as well as in other fields. This paper extends the dominance results derived by Lasso de la Vega (2009) and Alkire and Foster (2010) for the adjusted headcount ratio and develops a new condition whose fulfillment ensures the robustness of comparisons using the adjusted headcount ratio for any choice of multidimensional cut-off and for any weights and poverty lines. The paper then derives a first-order dominance condition for the whole Alkire-Foster family (that is, for continuous variables).Copyright © Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative 2011. This publication is copyright, however it may be reproduced without fee for teaching or non-profit purposes, but not for resale. Formal permission is required for all such uses, and will normally be granted immediately. For copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from OPHI and may be subject to a fee