Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in poverty analysis

Economics is commonly associated with the use of quantitative methods, and because of this, supposedly, the discipline is more 'rigorous' than other social sciences, which are in turn associated with the application of qualitative methods, presumed to be less rigorous. This paper challenges these assumptions and argues that the more serious distinction, which applies both to quantitative and to qualitative research, is between data analysis and data mining. Opposing the opposition of quantitative and qualitative analyses, the paper shows how a productive synergy may be established both between methods, and between disciplines, using examples from studies of labor in rural Africa, of the relationships of household size and poverty, and of child survival. Key words -- methods, poverty, statistics, econometrics