Investigating poverty in rural Iran: The multidimensional poverty approach

Abstract

In this study, rural poverty in Iran is investigated applying a multidimensional approach, association rules mining technique, and Levine, F and Tukey tests to household data of 2008. The results indicate that poverty in its multi-dimensions is an epidemic problem in rural Iran. The results also exhibit that there are 11 patterns of poverty in the rural areas including four main patterns with 99.62% coverage and seven sub-patterns with nearly 0.38% coverage. In these patterns, housing and household education are the most important dimensions of poverty and income poverty is the least important dimension. Government income support policy to households, in enforcement the law of targeting subsidies, cannot be regarded as pro poor policy but it follows other political aspects.

Share and Cite:

Shirvanian, A. and Bakhshoodeh, M. (2012) Investigating poverty in rural Iran: The multidimensional poverty approach. Agricultural Sciences, 3, 640-650. doi: 10.4236/as.2012.35077.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Alkire, S. and Foster, J. (2008) Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford, UK.
[2] Bossert, W., Chakravarty, S.R. and Ambrosio, C.D. (2009) Measuring multidimensional poverty: The generalized counting approach. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canada.
[3] Bourguignon, F. and Chakravarty, S. (2003) The measurement of multidimensional poverty. Journal of Economic Inequality, 1, 25-49.
[4] Rojas, M. (2008) Experienced poverty and income poverty in Mexico: a subjective well-being approach. World Development, 36, 1078-1093.
[5] Whitener, L.A. (2000) Housing poverty in rural areas greater for racial and ethnic minorities. Rural America, 15, 1-8.
[6] Moisio, P. (2004) A latent class application to the multidimensional measurement of poverty. Quality and Quantity, 38, 703-717.
[7] Tsui, K.Y. (1995) Multidimensional generalizations of the relative and absolute indices: the Atkinson-Kolm-Sen approach. Journal of Economics Theory, 67, 251-265.
[8] Sen, A. (1976) Poverty: an ordinal approach to measurement. Econometrica, 44, 219-31.
[9] Dewilde, C. (2004) The multidimensional measurement of poverty in Belgium and Britain: a categorical approach. Social Indicators Research, 68, 331-369.
[10] Krishnakumar, J. and Ballone, P. (2008) Estimating basic capabilities: a structural equation model applied to Bolivia. World Development, 36, 992-1010.
[11] Park, K. (2005) Text book of preventive and social medicine. 18th edition, Banarsidas Bhanot Publisher, India.
[12] Reckford, J. (2010) Housing and health: partners against poverty, Shelter Report. Habitat for Humanity International, USA.
[13] Sato, H. (2006) Housing inequality and housing poverty in urban China in the late 1990s. China Economic Review, 17, 37-50.
[14] Shinns, L.H. and Lyne, M.C. (2003) Symptoms of poverty within a group of land reform beneficiaries in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal: analysis and policy recommendations. US Agency for International Development (USAID), USA.
[15] Thalmann, P. (2003) House poor or simply poor?. Journal of Housing Economics, 12, 291-317.
[16] Zeller, M., Sharma, M., Henry, C. and Lapenu, C.C. (2006) An operational method for assessing the poverty outreach performance of development policies and projects: results of case studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. World Development, 34, 446-464.
[17] Folland, S., Goodman, A. and Stano, M. (2010) Economics of health and health care. The 6th Edition, Prentice Hall Inc., USA.
[18] Balanda, K.P., Hochart, A., Barron, S. and Fahy, L. (2008) Tackling food poverty: lessons from the decent food for all (DFfA) intervention. Institute of Public Health in Ireland, Ireland.
[19] Riches, G. (2002) Food banks and food security: welfare reform, human rights and social policy, lessons from Canada?, Social Policy and Administration, 36, 648-663.
[20] Anand, S. and Sen, A. (2000) Human development and economic sustainability. World Development, 28, 2029-2049.
[21] Behr, T., Christofides, C. and Neelakantan, P. (2004) The effects of state public k-12 education expenditures on income distribution. National Education Association (NEA) Research, USA.
[22] Galbraith, K.J. (1991) Economics in the century ahead. The Economic Journal, 101, 41-46.
[23] Psacharopoulos, G. and Woodhall, M. (1985) Education for development: an analysis of investment choices. Oxford University Press, USA.
[24] Nordtveit, B.H. (2008) Poverty alleviation and integrated service delivery: Literacy, early child development and health. International Journal of Educational Development, 28, 405-418.
[25] Tilak, J.B.G. (2007) Post-elementary education, poverty and development in India. International Journal of Educational Development, 27, 435-445.
[26] Rojas, M. (2006a) Life satisfaction and satisfaction in domains of life: Is it a simple relationship?, Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 467-497.
[27] Rojas, M. (2006b) Well-being and the complexity of poverty: A subjective well-being approach. In McGillivray, M. and Clarke, M. (Eds.), Understanding human well-being, United Nations University Press, Japan, 182-206.
[28] Rojas, M. (2007) The complexity of well-being: A life satisfaction conception and a domains-of-life approach. In Gough, I. and McGregor, A. (Eds.), Wellbeing in developing countries: From theory to research, Cambridge University Press, USA, 242-258.
[29] Van-Praag, B.M.S., Frijters, P. and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2003) The anatomy of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 51, 29-49.
[30] Dixon, C. (1990) Rural development in the third world. Routledge. Chapman and Hall Inc., UK.
[31] Miltin, D. (2001) Housing and urban poverty: a consideration of the criteria of affordability, diversity and inclusion. Housing Studies, 16, 509-522.
[32] Sengupta, U. (2010) The hindered self-help: housing policies, politics and poverty in Kolkata, India. Habitat International, 34, 323-331.
[33] Antony, G.M. and Rao, K.V. (2007) A composite index to explain variations in poverty, health, nutritional status and standard of living: use of multivariate statistical methods. Public Health, 121, 578-587.
[34] Nassiri, M. (2007) Geographic distribution of housing poverty and scattering house-holder divorced women in 22 regions of Tehran. Journal of Social Welfare, 24, 240-223 (In Persian).
[35] Babai, N. (2003) Social policy and health. Journal of Social Welfare, 10, 232-201. (In Persian)
[36] Ministry of Health and Medical Education. (2004) National document of health sector development on the forth economic, social and cultural program. Deputy of harmony and community, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Iran (In Presian).
[37] Endocrine and Metabolism Research Center. (2001) Preliminary results in goiter prevalence in Iran provinces. Martyr Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran (In Persian).
[38] Kimiagar, M. and Badjan, M. (2005) Poverty and malnutrition in Iran. Journal of Social Welfare, 18, 112-91(In Persian).
[39] Alkire, S. (2007) Choosing dimensions: the capability approach and multidimensional poverty. Department of International Development, Chronic Poverty Research Centre, University of Oxford, UK.
[40] Ravallion, M. (1992) Poverty comparisons: a guide to concepts and methods. The World Bank, USA.
[41] Alexopoulos, Y., Hebberd, K. and Bays, H. (2008) Krause’s food and nutrition therapy. 12th edition, Elsevier Inc., Canada.
[42] The Health Canada Web Site. (2010) Canada’s food guide, Farsi Version. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php
[43] Fasco, A. (2003) On the definition and measurement of poverty: the contribution of multidimensional analysis. Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on the Capability Approach: from Sustainable Development to Sustainable Freedom, 7-9 Septamber 2003, Pavia, Italy, 1-39.
[44] Saisana, M. and Saltelli, A. (2010) The multidimensional poverty assessment tool (MPAT): robustness issues and critical assessment. European Commission and Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Italy.
[45] Veenstra, N. (2006) Social protection in a context of HIV/AIDS: a closer look at South Africa. Social Dynamics, 32, 111-135.
[46] Doorslaer, E.V., O’Donnell, O. , Rannan-Eliya, R.P., Somanathan, A., Adhikari, S.R., Garg, C.C. , Harbianto, D., Herrin, A.N., Nazmul-Huq, M., Ibragimova, S., Karan, A., Wan-Ng, C., Pande, B.R., Racelis, R., Tao, S., Tin, K., Tisayaticom, K., Trisnantoro, L., Vasavid, C. and Zhao, Y. (2006) Effect of payments for health care on poverty estimates in 11 countries in Asia: an analysis of household survey data. Lancet, 368, 1357-1364.
[47] Russell, S. (1996) Ability to pay for health care: concepts and evidence. Health Policy and Planning, 11, 219-237.
[48] UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2008) List of potential international indicators for information supply, access and supporting skills. UNESCO, France.
[49] UNESCO. (2005) Education for All, literacy for life, United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), France.
[50] UNESCO. (2010) Glossary. http://www.uis.unesco.org/glossary
[51] Henry, C., Sharma, M., Lapenu, C. and Zeller, M. (2003) Microfinance poverty assessment tool. Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and The World Bank, USA.
[52] Naveed, A. and UlIslam, T. (2010) Estimating multidimensional poverty and identifying the poor in Pakistan: a alternative approach. Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP), Pakistan.
[53] Saunders, P. (1997) Living standards, choice and poverty. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 1, 49-70.
[54] Saunders, P. and Hill, T. (2008) A consistent poverty approach to assessing the sensitivity of income poverty measures and trends. The Australian Economic Review, 41, 371-88.
[55] Saunders, P., Hill, T. and Bradbury, B. (2007) Poverty in Australia sensitivity analysis and recent trends. Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia.
[56] Schubert, R. (1994) Poverty in developing countries: its definition, extent and implications. Economics, 49/50, 17-40.
[57] Smith, P. (1996) Measuring outcome in the public sector. Taylor and Francis Ltd., UK.
[58] Grootaert, C. and Narayan, D. (2004) Local institutions, poverty and household welfare in Bolivia. World Development, 32, 1179-1198.
[59] Okunmadewa, F.Y., Yusuf, S.A. and Omonona, B.T. (2007) Effects of social capital on rural poverty in Nigeria. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 331-339.
[60] Muro, P.D., Mazziotta, M. and Pareto, A. (2009) Composite indices for multidimensional development and poverty: an application to MDG indicators. University of Roma Tra, Italy.
[61] Deutsch, J. and Silber, J. (2005) Measuring multidi-mensional poverty: an empirical comparison of various ap-proaches. Review of Income and Wealth, 51, 145-174.
[62] Shannon, C.E. (1948) The mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical Journal, 27, 379-423 and 623-56.
[63] Tsui, K.Y. (1999) Multidimensional inequality and multidimensional generalized entropy measures: an axiomatic derivation. Social Choice and Welfare, 16, 145–57.
[64] Zhi-hong, Z., Yi, Y. and Jing-nan, S. (2006) Entropy method for determination of weight indicators in fuzzy synthetic evaluation for water quality assessment. Journal of Environmental Science, 18, 1020-1023.
[65] Foster, J., Greer, J. and Thorbecke, E. (2010) The Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures: 25 years later. Journal of Economic Inequality, 8, 491-524.
[66] Han, J. and Kamber, M. (2006) Data mining: concepts and techniques. 2nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Elsevier Inc., USA.
[67] Margahny, M.H. and Mitwaly, A.A. (2005) Fast algorithm for mining association rules. Proceedings of the AIML 05 Conference, 19-21 December 2005, CICC, Cairo, Egypt, 19-21.
[68] Olson, D.L. and Delen, D. (2008) Advanced data mining techniques. Springer, USA.
[69] Russell, G.J. and Petersen, A. (2000) Analysis of cross category dependence in market basket selection. Journal of Retailing, 78, 367–392.
[70] Thakur, M., Olafsson, S., Lee, J.S. and Hurburgh, C.R. (2010) Data mining for recognizing patterns in foodborne disease outbreaks. Journal of Food Engineering, 97, 213-227.
[71] Freund, R.J., Mohr, D.L. and Wilson, W.J. (2010) Statistical methods. 3th Edition, Elsevier Inc., Canada.
[72] Silber, J. (2007) Measuring Poverty: Taking a Multidimensional Perspective. Hacienda Publica Espano-la/Revista de Economia Publica, 182, 29-73.
[73] Bossert, W., Ambrosio, C.D. and Peragine, V. (2007) Deprivation and social exclusion. Econonica, 74, 777-803.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.