IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qeh/qehwps/qehwps66.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Capabilities: the Concept and its Operationalisation

Author

Listed:
  • Ruhi Saith

Abstract

Amartya Sen introduced the Capability approach in 1979 as a more appropriate theory of justice than existing theories in moral philosophy. The main features of the Capabilities approach and its operationalisation in the context of poverty analysis are discussed in this paper. The three broad approaches to operationalisation i.e. evaluation in the functionings space, in the functionings space combined with the income space, or the income space supplemented by functionings information, are outlined. The paper restricts itself to the functionings space and therefore concentrates on the first of these. Issues pertaining to the assessment of capabilities as well as assessment restricted to the chosen functioning vector, selection of capabilities/functionings to be assessed, and possible procedures that may be used for inter-personal comparisons are discussed. Concentrating on operationalisation in developing countries, lists of 'basic' capabilities developed by different researchers, using differing methodologies are compared. The comparison indicates that capabilities related to health, nutrition and education consistently appear in all the lists, despite the different criteria for inclusion, reflecting their importance for any capabilities based investigation of poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruhi Saith, "undated". "Capabilities: the Concept and its Operationalisation," QEH Working Papers qehwps66, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps66
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://workingpapers.qeh.ox.ac.uk/RePEc/qeh/qehwps/qehwps66.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hicks, Norman L., 1982. "Sector priorities in meeting basic needs: some statistical evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 489-499, June.
    2. Erik SCHOKKAERT & Luc VAN OOTEGEM, 1990. "Sen's Concept of the Living Standard applied to the Belgian Unemployed," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 1990039, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    3. repec:bla:revinw:v:39:y:1993:i:4:p:337-56 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Sen, Amartya, 1988. "The concept of development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 9-26, Elsevier.
    5. Desai, Meghnad & Shah, Anup, 1988. "An Econometric Approach to the Measurement of Poverty," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(3), pages 505-522, September.
    6. Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi, "undated". "The Monetary Approach to Poverty: A Survey of Concepts and Methods," QEH Working Papers qehwps58, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    7. Achin Chakraborty, 1996. "On the Possibility of a Weighting System for Functionings," Indian Economic Review, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 241-250, July.
    8. Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi, "undated". "The Many Dimensions of Deprivation in Peru: theoretical debates and empirical evidence," QEH Working Papers qehwps29, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    9. Frances Stewart, 1985. "Planning to Meet Basic Needs," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-17731-8, October.
    10. Stephen P. Jenkins & Peter J. Lambert, 1993. "Ranking Income Distributions When Needs Differ," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 39(4), pages 337-356, December.
    11. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292975.
    12. Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), 1988. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    13. Meghnad Desai, 1995. "Poverty, Famine And Economic Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 134.
    14. Anthony B. Atkinson & François Bourguignon, 1987. "Income Distribution and Differences in Needs," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: George R. Feiwel (ed.), Arrow and the Foundations of the Theory of Economic Policy, chapter 12, pages 350-370, Palgrave Macmillan.
    15. Ram, Rati, 1982. "Composite indices of physical quality of life, basic needs fulfilment, and income : A principal component representation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 227-247, October.
    16. Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi, 1997. "Poverty and its many dimensions: The role of income as an indicator," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 345-360.
    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. de Vries, Bert J.M. & Petersen, Arthur C., 2009. "Conceptualizing sustainable development: An assessment methodology connecting values, knowledge, worldviews and scenarios," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 1006-1019, February.
    2. repec:pru:wpaper:24 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Ruhi Saith, "undated". "Social Exclusion: the Concept and Application to Developing Countries," QEH Working Papers qehwps72, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    4. Stefan Buzar, 2006. "Estimating The Extent Of Domestic Energy Deprivation Through Household Expenditure Surveys," Journal Articles, Center For Economic Analyses, pages 1-14, December.
    5. Andrés Mideros & Franziska Gassmann, 2021. "Fostering social mobility. The case of the Bono de Desarrollo Humano in Ecuador," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 385-404, October.
    6. Ballon, Paola, 2013. "The selection of functionings and capabilities: A survey of empirical studies," PEP Working Papers 160427, Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP).
    7. Abu Hena Reza, 2011. "Cultural Change for Aspiration Adaptation: Role of NGO’s in Rural Bangladesh," Journal of Social and Development Sciences, AMH International, vol. 1(1), pages 36-47.
    8. Vivien Kana Zeumo & Blaise Some & Alexis Tsoukiàs, 2011. "A survey on Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: a Decision Aiding Perspective," Working Papers hal-00875525, HAL.
    9. Stefan Bouzarovski & Saska Petrova & Sergio Tirado-Herrero, 2014. "From Fuel Poverty to Energy Vulnerability: The Importance of Services, Needs and Practices," SPRU Working Paper Series 2014-25, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    10. Adama Zerbo, 2002. "Une approche non probabiliste d'analyse de la dynamique multidimensionnelle du bien-être. Pauvreté, vulnérabilité et exclusion," Documents de travail 70, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    11. Gough, Ian, 2003. "Lists and thresholds: comparing our theory of human need with Nussbaum's capabilities approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 36659, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi & Ruhi Saith & Frances Stewart, 2003. "Does it Matter that we do not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 243-274.
    13. Adama Zerbo, 2003. "Pauvreté urbaine au Burkina-Faso : une exploitation de la complémentarité empirique des approches de l'utilité et des capabilités," Documents de travail 80, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    14. Distaso, Alba, 2007. "Well-being and/or quality of life in EU countries through a multidimensional index of sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 163-180, October.

    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. Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi & Ruhi Saith & Frances Stewart, 2003. "Does it Matter that we do not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 243-274.
    2. Andrea Brandolini, 2008. "On applying synthetic indices of multidimensional well-being: health and income inequalities in selected EU countries," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 668, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. David A. Clark & University of Manchester, 2005. "The Capability Approach: Its Development, Critiques and Recent Advances," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-032, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Tugce, Cuhadaroglu, 2013. "My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-49, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    5. Hutchens, Robert M., 2012. "Measuring Segregation When Hierarchy Matters," IZA Discussion Papers 6667, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Jean‐Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2005. "Poverty‐Reducing Tax Reforms with Heterogeneous Agents," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 7(1), pages 107-116, February.
    7. Kuklys, W. & Robeyns, I., 2004. "Sen’s Capability Approach to Welfare Economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0415, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    8. Wiebke Kuklys & Ingrid Robeyns, 2004. "Sens's Capability Approach to Welfare Economics," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-03, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    9. James Foster, Christopher Handy, 2008. "External Capabilities," OPHI Working Papers 8, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    10. Wiebke Kuklys, 2004. "Measuring Standard of Living in the UK - An Application of Sen's Functioning Approach Using Structural Equation Models," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-11, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    11. Sabina Alkire, 2011. "Multidimensional Poverty and its Discontents," OPHI Working Papers 46, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    12. Sabina Alkire, 2007. "The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: An Introduction," OPHI Working Papers 0, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    13. Komsan Suriya, 2012. "Modeling the linkage between tourism and multiple dimensions of poverty in Thailand," The Empirical Econometrics and Quantitative Economics Letters, Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University, vol. 1(1), pages 17-38, March.
    14. Andrea Brandolini, 2007. "On Synthetic Indices Of Multidimensional Well-Being: Health And Income Inequalities In France, Germany, Italy And The United Kingdom," CHILD Working Papers wp07_07, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    15. Koen Decancq & Maria Ana Lugo, 2008. "Setting Weights in Multidimensional Indices of Well-Being," OPHI Working Papers 18, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    16. repec:pru:wpaper:8 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Christophe Muller & Asha Kannan & Roland Alcindor, 2016. "Multidimensional Poverty in Seychelles," Working Papers halshs-01264444, HAL.
    18. Jesus Perez-Mayo, 2005. "Identifying deprivation profiles in Spain: a new approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 943-955.
    19. Satya R. Chakravarty & Pietro Muliere, 2003. "Welfare indicators: A review and new perspectives. 1. Measurement of inequality," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(3), pages 457-497.
    20. Anand, Paul & Gray, Alastair & Liberini, Federica & Roope, Laurence & Smith, Ron & Thomas, Ranjeeta, 2015. "Wellbeing over 50," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 68-78.
    21. Elizabeth Stanton, 2007. "The Human Development Index: A History," Working Papers wp127, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:qeh:qehwps:qehwps66. 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: IT Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/qehoxuk.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.