Las tres Is de la pobreza multidimensional en Nicaragua y el diferencial de género en los primeros quince años del siglo XXI, a partir de un enfoque centrado en la persona[The three I’s of multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua and the gender differentials over the first fifteen years of the XXI century, an individual-based approach]

In this paper we estimate the incidence, the intensity, and the inequality of the multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua over the first fifteen years of the XXI century, using the individual as the unit of identification of the poor, and applying the methodology proposed by Alkire and Foster (2007, 2011). This normative decision allows us to take into account the intra-household inequalities, and to estimate the gender gap in multidimensional poverty and inequality, which cannot be calculated whether the household is used as the unit of analysis. Although we find statistically significant evidence that multidimensional poverty decreased over the analysis period, Nicaragua would demand of several decades to eradicate the issue, ceteris paribus. On the other hand, our estimates show that the gender gaps in multidimensional poverty are not substantial; women and men are equally poor in Nicaragua. But, the reverse is the case for the inequality, notably among the adults. To our best knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt to propose an individual-based multidimensional poverty for the whole population in Nicaragua, the first effort to estimate gender gaps in multidimensional poverty and inequality in Latin America, and one of the first contributions in the literature.