IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0243921.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting for drinking water quality in measuring multidimensional poverty in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Alemayehu Azeze Ambel
  • Harriet Kasidi Mugera
  • Robert E S Bain

Abstract

The Multidimensional Poverty Index is used increasingly to measure poverty in developing countries. The index is constructed using selected indicators that cover health, education, and living standards dimensions. The accuracy of this tool, however, depends on how each indicator is measured. This study explores the effect of accounting for water quality in multidimensional poverty measurement. Access to drinking water is traditionally measured by water source types. The study uses a more comprehensive measure, access to safely managed drinking water services, which are free from E. coli contamination, available when needed and accessible on premises in line with Sustainable Development Goal target 6.1. The study finds that the new measure increases national multidimensional headcount poverty by 5–13 percentage points, which would mean that 5–13 million more people are multidimensionally poor. It also increases the poverty level in urban areas to a greater extent than in rural areas. The finding is robust to changes in water contamination risk levels and Multidimensional Poverty Index aggregation approaches and weighting structures.

Suggested Citation

  • Alemayehu Azeze Ambel & Harriet Kasidi Mugera & Robert E S Bain, 2020. "Accounting for drinking water quality in measuring multidimensional poverty in Ethiopia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0243921
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243921
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243921
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243921&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0243921?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sabina Alkire, 2007. "The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: Introduction to the Special Issue," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 347-359.
    2. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 476-487.
    3. Glewwe, P. & Muralidharan, K., 2016. "Improving Education Outcomes in Developing Countries," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    4. Martin Ravallion & Gaurav Datt & Dominique van de Walle, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty In The Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 345-361, December.
    5. Alkire, Sabina & Santos, Maria Emma, 2014. "Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 251-274.
    6. Sabina Alkire, 2007. "The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: An Introduction," OPHI Working Papers 0, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    7. Santos, María Emma, 2019. "Challenges in designing national multidimensional poverty measures," Estudios Estadísticos 44453, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    8. repec:bla:revinw:v:37:y:1991:i:4:p:345-61 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim Samuel & Sabina Alkire & Diego Zavaleta & China Mills & John Hammock, 2018. "Social isolation and its relationship to multidimensional poverty," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 83-97, January.
    2. Nicolai Suppa, 2018. "Towards a multidimensional poverty index for Germany," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 655-683, November.
    3. Veronika V. Eberharter, 2018. "Capability Deprivation, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Social Disadvantages—Empirical Evidence from Selected Countries," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Hong Sun & Xiaohong Li & Wenjing Li & Jun Feng, 2022. "Differences and Influencing Factors of Relative Poverty of Urban and Rural Residents in China Based on the Survey of 31 Provinces and Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    5. Daniel Hojman & Alvaro Miranda, 2015. "Agency, Human Dignity and Subjective Well-Being," Working Papers wp398, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    6. Sehnbruch, Kirsten & González, Pablo & Apablaza, Mauricio & Méndez, Rocío & Arriagada, Verónica, 2020. "The Quality of Employment (QoE) in nine Latin American countries: A multidimensional perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    7. Sabina Alkire & Yingfeng Fang, 2019. "Dynamics of Multidimensional Poverty and Uni-dimensional Income Poverty: An Evidence of Stability Analysis from China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 25-64, February.
    8. Sabina Alkire & Suman Seth, 2015. "Identifying destitution through linked subsets of multidimensionally poor: An ordinal approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-151, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Maria Santos, 2013. "Tracking Poverty Reduction in Bhutan: Income Deprivation Alongside Deprivation in Other Sources of Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 259-290, June.
    10. Yiyan Chen & Zhaoyun Tang, 2023. "A Study of Multidimensional and Persistent Poverty among Migrant Workers: Evidence from China’s CFPS 2014–2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, May.
    11. Nicolai Suppa, 2021. "Walls of glass. Measuring deprivation in social participation," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(2), pages 385-411, June.
    12. Stephan Klasen, 2016. "An Asian poverty line? Issues and options," Chapters, in: Jacques Silber & Guanghua Wan (ed.), The Asian ‘Poverty Miracle’, chapter 1, pages 13-29, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Gallardo, Mauricio, 2022. "Measuring vulnerability to multidimensional poverty with Bayesian network classifiers," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 492-512.
    14. Diego Battiston & Guillermo Cruces & Luis Lopez-Calva & Maria Lugo & Maria Santos, 2013. "Income and Beyond: Multidimensional Poverty in Six Latin American Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 291-314, June.
    15. Ousmane Traoré, 2022. "The effect of income on health: evidence from the poverty gaps analysis method in the sub-Saharan Africa," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(3), pages 401-432, September.
    16. Trani, Jean-François & Cannings, Tim I., 2013. "Child Poverty in an Emergency and Conflict Context: A Multidimensional Profile and an Identification of the Poorest Children in Western Darfur," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 48-70.
    17. Sabina Alkire & Suman Seth, 2015. "Identifying destitution through linked subsets of multidimensionally poor: An ordinal approach," WIDER Working Paper Series 151, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Nadjiarabeye Christian BEASSOUM & Koulké Blandine NAN-GUER & Olivier BEGUY & Tabo Symphorien Ndang & TOPEUR Béguerang, 2011. "Pauvrete Des Capacites Au Tchad: Une Exploration Des Dimensions Manquantes Des Donnees Dans La Capitale N'Djamena," Working Papers PMMA 2011-17, PEP-PMMA.
    19. Miraj Ahmed Bhuiyan & Zhihui Liu & Fanqiang Meng, 2023. "Multi-period Analysis and Household Registration Differences of Multidimensional Poverty Among Migrant Workers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 671-696, September.
    20. Nicolai Suppa, 2018. "Towards a multidimensional poverty index for Germany," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 655-683, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0243921. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.