Factors Determining Differences in the Poverty Degree among Countries

Abstract

The persistency of poverty around the world is one of the most serious problems that humanity has to face, so in order to arise awareness, it is essential that the measurement of such problem is improved. These improvements also give the incentive to carry out motivating actions, design good policies, gauging progress, and enable holding political leaders accountable for meeting targets. To help make this possible, we provide an examination of how poverty is currently measured, bringing together evidence on the nature and extent of poverty in 91 countries around the world. This article presents research using the Rasch model, an inductive method which uses a synthetic-analytical process. This method enables us to provide a comparison of poverty among countries and identifies the main factors that contribute to it.

Keywords

• poverty
• Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), Rasch model
• welfare measures
• development indicators
• health
• education