IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jet/dpaper/dpaper707.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring the relationship between subjective well-being and objective poverty indices : evidence from panel data in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Aida, Takeshi

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between subjective well-being and objective poverty indices such as income poverty and multidimensional poverty. Although they are popular indices, very few studies have analyzed their relationship using rigorous econometric approach. By applying the Blow-up and Cluster estimation of fixed effects ordered logit model to a panel data collected in South Africa, this study finds that both income and multidimensional poverties significantly aggravate subjective well-being. However, their effects are not robust to the inclusion of household income, implying that being below the poverty lines does not provide additional information to explain subjective well-being. Moreover, a large part of the variation in subjective well-being cannot be explained by these objective poverty indices, suggesting strong complementarity between subjective and objective welfare measures. This study also finds that multidimensional poverty index, constructed based on principal component analysis, performs better than the conventional approach, casting doubt on the conventional multidimensional poverty index.

Suggested Citation

  • Aida, Takeshi, 2018. "Exploring the relationship between subjective well-being and objective poverty indices : evidence from panel data in South Africa," IDE Discussion Papers 707, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    • Handle: RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper707
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.ide.go.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=50325&item_no=1&attribute_id=22&file_no=1
    File Function: First version, 2018
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2004. "Well-being over time in Britain and the USA," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1359-1386, July.
    2. Gregori Baetschmann & Kevin E. Staub & Rainer Winkelmann, 2015. "Consistent estimation of the fixed effects ordered logit model," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 178(3), pages 685-703, June.
    3. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 476-487.
    4. Sabina Alkire & James Foster, 2011. "Understandings and misunderstandings of multidimensional poverty measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 289-314, June.
    5. François Bourguignon & Satya R. Chakravarty, 2019. "The Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty," Themes in Economics, in: Satya R. Chakravarty (ed.), Poverty, Social Exclusion and Stochastic Dominance, pages 83-107, Springer.
    6. Michelle Adato & Michael Carter & Julian May, 2006. "Exploring poverty traps and social exclusion in South Africa using qualitative and quantitative data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 226-247.
    7. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salauddin Tauseef, 2022. "Can Money Buy Happiness? Subjective Wellbeing and Its Relationship with Income, Relative Income, Monetary and Non-monetary Poverty in Bangladesh," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1073-1098, March.

    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. Sabina Alkire, Mauricio Apablaza, 2016. "Multidimensional Poverty in Europe 2006-2012: Illustrating a Methodology," OPHI Working Papers 74, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    2. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya, 2022. "Multidimensionl Poverty and The Role of Social Capital in Poverty Alleviation Among Ethnic Groups in Rural Vietnam: A Multilevel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 281-317, January.
    3. Espinoza-Delgado, José & Klasen, Stephan, 2018. "Gender and multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua: An individual based approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 466-491.
    4. Burhan Can Karahasan & Fırat Bilgel, 2021. "The Topography and Sources of Multidimensional Poverty in Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 413-445, April.
    5. Udaya Wagle, 2014. "The Counting-Based Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty: The Focus on Economic Resources, Inner Capabilities, and Relational Resources in the United States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 223-240, January.
    6. Vollmer, Frank & Zorrilla-Miras, Pedro & Baumert, Sophia & Luz, Ana Catarina & Woollen, Emily & Grundy, Isla & Artur, Luis & Ribeiro, Natasha & Mahamane, Mansour & Patenaude, Genevieve, 2017. "Charcoal income as a means to a valuable end: Scope and limitations of income from rural charcoal production to alleviate acute multidimensional poverty in Mabalane district, southern Mozambique," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 7, pages 43-60.
    7. Mateusz Piwowarski & Danuta Miłaszewicz & Małgorzata Łatuszyńska & Mariusz Borawski & Kesra Nermend, 2018. "Application of the Vector Measure Construction Method and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity Ideal Solution for the Analysis of the Dynamics of Changes in the Poverty Levels in the European ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-24, August.
    8. Roberto Angulo, 2016. "From Multidimensional Poverty Measurement to Multisector Public Policy for Poverty Reduction: Lessons from the Colombian Case," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp102_1.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    9. Migbaru Alamirew Workneh, 2020. "Nonmonetary poverty in Ethiopia: Multidimensional approach," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(4), pages 326-356, December.
    10. Álvaro José Altamirano Montoya & Karla Maria Damiano Teixeira, 2017. "Multidimensional Poverty in Nicaragua: Are Female-Headed Households Better Off?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1037-1063, July.
    11. Wulung Hanandita & Gindo Tampubolon, 2016. "Multidimensional Poverty in Indonesia: Trend Over the Last Decade (2003–2013)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 559-587, September.
    12. Sam Jones, 2019. "Counting-based multidimensional poverty identification: From deprivation weights to bundles," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-55, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Rolf Aaberge & Andrea Brandolini, 2014. "Multidimensional poverty and inequality," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 976, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Carmelo García-Pérez & Yolanda González-González & Mercedes Prieto-Alaiz, 2017. "Identifying the Multidimensional Poor in Developed Countries Using Relative Thresholds: An Application to Spanish Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 291-303, March.
    15. Hui Xiao & Xian Liang & Chen Chen & Fangting Xie, 2022. "The Impact of Multidimensional Poverty on Rural Households’ Health: From a Perspective of Social Capital and Family Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-27, November.
    16. Robles Aguilar, Gisela & Sumner, Andy, 2020. "Who are the world’s poor? A new profile of global multidimensional poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    17. Sabina Alkire & Maria Santos, 2013. "A Multidimensional Approach: Poverty Measurement & Beyond," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 239-257, June.
    18. 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.
    19. Francesco Farina, 2015. "Development theory and poverty. A review," Working Papers 46-2015, Macerata University, Department of Studies on Economic Development (DiSSE), revised Jan 2015.
    20. Yanlin Yang & Chenyu Fu, 2019. "Inclusive Financial Development and Multidimensional Poverty Reduction: An Empirical Assessment from Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    South Africa; Subjective well-being; Poverty line; Multidimensional poverty index; Panel data; Multiple imputation; Poverty; Costs and standard of living;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:jet:dpaper:dpaper707. 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: Michitaka Imamitsu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/idegvjp.html .

    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.