Beyond multidimensional poverty: challenges of measurement and its link with social policy in Mexico

Abstract

PurposeComprehensive poverty measures are increasingly gaining importance since people's deprivations and needs cover aspects beyond income. For this reason, the goal of this article is to propose a methodology to measure poverty that includes objective social deprivation, income deprivation and subjective social deprivation, using Mexico City and its municipalities as the study context. In order to show areas of intervention of public policies, the authors discuss the dimensions and indicators used in the multidimensional measurement.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Social Welfare Survey (N = 2,871), the authors measure poverty with the Alkire-Foster methodology. The applied concept of poverty includes objective and subjective deprivations, and income.FindingsThe interaction between objective and subjective deprivations shows that income, social cohesion, built environment and public insecurity are important areas for the redesigning of public policies.Originality/valueThe employed method to measure poverty emphasizes the relevance of including subjective deprivations in interaction with objective deprivations and income. It evidences the need for the implementation or strengthening of public policies.