Multidimensional Deprivation: Comparison Within and Between Countries

The discussion so far has focussed on household welfare based on money metric variables such as prices and expenditure. In this chapter and the next, the volume widens the discussion to include a household’s inability to enjoy some of the basic necessities of life such as drinking water, Fuel, electricity, toilet and medical care. Notwithstanding significant improvement in levels of living, many parts of the world still experience lack of access to several of these dimensions. Poverty measures and, more broadly, an exclusive reliance on variables that can be quantified in money terms, often fail to capture the true extent of human misery both globally and in pockets inside countries. The motivation of this chapter and the next is to provide evidence from studies that compare between and within countries taking a multidimensional view of deprivation.