Counting the Poor New Thinking About European Poverty Measures and Lessons for the United States

The poverty rate is one of the most visible ways in which nations measure the economic well-being of their low-income citizens. To gauge whether a person is poor, European states often focus on a person's relative position in the income distribution to measure poverty while the United States looks at a fixed-income threshold that represents a lower relative standing in the overall distribution to gauge. In Europe, low income is perceived as only one aspect of being socially excluded, so that examining other relative dimensions of family and individual welfare is important. This broad emphasis on relative measures of well-being that extend into non-pecuniary aspects of people's lives does not always imply that more people would ultimately be counted as poor. This is particularly true if one must be considered poor in multiple dimensions to be considered poor, in sharp contrast to the American emphasis on income as the sole dimension. With contributions from the world's foremost authorities on income and social measurement, the book provides detailed discussions of specific issues from a European perspective followed by commentary from American observers. The volume considers (1) current standards of poverty measurement in the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, (2) challenges in extending those measures to account for the value of the provision of in-kind and cash benefits from the government, (3) the interaction of poverty measures with social assistance, (4) non-income but monetary measures of poverty, and (5) multi-dimensional measures of poverty. The result is a definitive reference for poverty researchers and policymakers seeking to disengage politics from measurement.

1. Introduction; Douglas J. Besharov and Kenneth A. Couch; Part I. European Measures of Income, Poverty, and Inequality; ; 2. The OECD Approach to Measuring Income Distribution and Poverty; Michael F. F?rster and Marco Mira d'Ercole; 3. Income Indicators for the EU's Social Inclusion Strategy; Isabelle Maquet and David Stanton; 4. Deconstructing European Poverty Measures; Richard V. Burkhauser; Part II. Broadening Measures of Income and Other Financial Resources; 5. Accounting for the Distributional Effects of Non-cash Public Benefits; Holly Sutherland and Panos Tsakloglou; 6. Accounting for Imputed and Capital Income Flows; Joachim R. Frick and Markus M. Grabka; 7. Accounting for Employee Benefits; Neil Gilbert; 8. Impressionistic Realism: A European Focus on U.S. Poverty Measurement; David S. Johnson; Part III. Income Levels for Social Assistance and their Behavioral Effects; 9. Minimum-Income Benefits in OECD Countries; Herwig Immervoll; 10. Social Assistance Schemes in Developing Countries; Margaret Grosh, Carlo del Ninno, and Emil Tesliuc; 11. Europe's Other Poverty Measures: Absolute Thresholds Underlying Social Assistance; Richard Bavier; Part IV. Non-Income Monetary Measures; 12. Asset-Based Measurement of Poverty; Andrea Brandolini, Silvia Magri, and Timothy M. Smeeding; 13. Consumption-Based Measures in Developing Nations: Lessons from Brazil; Peter Lanjouw; 14. Alternatives to Income-Based Measures of Poverty; Kenneth A. Couch; Part V. Multi-Dimensional Measures; 15. Developing and Learning from EU Measures of Social Inclusion; Eric Marlier, Bea Cantillon, Brian Nolan, Karel Van den Bosch, and Tim Van Rie; 16. Using Non-Monetary Deprivation Indicators to Analyze European Poverty and Social Exclusion; Brian Nolan and Christopher T. Whelan; 17. Poverty Redefined as Low Consumption and Low Wealth, Not Just Low Income: Psychological Consequences in Australia and Germany; Bruce Headey, Peter Krause, and Gert G. Wagner; 18. Anomalies in European Measures of Poverty and Social Exclusion; Neil Gilbert; Part VI. Conclusion; 19. New Comparative Measures of Income, Material Deprivation, and Well-Being; Timothy M. Smeeding

Douglas J. Besharov, PhD, is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. Kenneth A. Couch, PhD, is Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut.