Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on the contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Beyond the snapshot: a dynamic view of child poverty
- Part I Issues and cross-national evidence
- 2 Conceptual and measurement issues
- 3 Child poverty across twenty-five countries
- 4 The dynamics of child poverty in seven industrialised nations
- Part II Topics in child poverty dynamics
- Summary and policy conclusions
- Index of authors
- Index by subject
2 - Conceptual and measurement issues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on the contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Beyond the snapshot: a dynamic view of child poverty
- Part I Issues and cross-national evidence
- 2 Conceptual and measurement issues
- 3 Child poverty across twenty-five countries
- 4 The dynamics of child poverty in seven industrialised nations
- Part II Topics in child poverty dynamics
- Summary and policy conclusions
- Index of authors
- Index by subject
Summary
The range of issues
In this chapter we consider some of the important issues that arise when one looks at child poverty from a dynamic perspective. Although some are the same as those relevant to measuring poverty at a single point in time, they often need to be seen in a new light when one looks at poverty longitudinally. We also draw attention to additional matters which arise from a focus on children.
Choosing the concept of living standards and the definition of poverty is fundamental, and is the subject of section 2.2. In subsequent chapters the focus is typically on household income (adjusted for differences in needs) and children are taken to be poor if their incomes fall below a low income threshold. We consider why money-based measures are relevant and whether it is consumption expenditure or income which is the better measure of living standards. Additional issues addressed are the distribution of living standards within families, the choice of the equivalence scale which is used to adjust observed money income (or consumption expenditure) to take account of differences in household size and composition, and of course the level of the poverty line itself. The interval of time over which money-based measures of living standards should be measured is also considered: for example, whether it should be a month or a year.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001
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