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Measuring Child Poverty Matt Tinsley

Measuring Child Poverty Matt Tinsley. What we want from a measure. Identifying the problem: Accurately measures what we want to call “poverty”. Government needs to be specific about what it defines as poverty. Comparability over time. Does not discriminate

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Measuring Child Poverty Matt Tinsley

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  1. Measuring Child PovertyMatt Tinsley

  2. What we want from a measure • Identifying the problem: • Accurately measures what we want to call “poverty”. • Government needs to be specific about what it defines as poverty. • Comparability over time. • Does not discriminate • Identifies the situation of all individuals (children) regardless of irrelevant factors. • Ability to ask why changes and differences happen • Not open to manipulation

  3. Comparability over time (1)

  4. Comparability over time (2)

  5. Material deprivation and worklessness

  6. Household type

  7. Number of children

  8. Regional distortions

  9. Failure to explain “why”

  10. Fundamental criticisms • Clear distortions over time • Little overlap with comparable measures of living standards • Exaggerating certain issues and hiding of others, making identification of problems hard • Covers up complex background factors • Income measures very susceptible to these failures as it is not measuring living standards directly

  11. What we need instead • An understanding of what we want to measure by “poverty” • Measures suitable for this, probably demanding multiple measures • Statistical robustness • Time distortions • Bias against certain groups • Material measures preferable

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