Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Poverty in Ghana Using Fuzzy Sets Theory
PMMA Working Paper No. 2007-21
36 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2007
There are 2 versions of this paper
Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Poverty in Ghana Using Fuzzy Sets Theory
Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Poverty in Ghana Using Fuzzy Sets Theory
Date Written: July 2007
Abstract
The paper studies the multidimensional aspects of poverty and living conditions in Ghana. The aim is to fill the vacuum that has been left by traditional uni-dimensional measures of deprivation based on poverty lines, exclusively estimated on the basis of monetary variables such as income or consumption expenditure. It combines monetary and non-monetary, and qualitative and quantitative indicators, including housing conditions, the possession of durable goods, equivalent disposable income, and equivalent expenditure, with a number of composite human welfare measures. The study employs the fuzzy-set theoretic framework to compare levels of deprivation in Ghana over time using micro data from the last two rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Surveys (1991/1992 and 1998/1999). The estimation results of the membership functions, depicting the levels of deprivation for the various categories of deprivation indicators, show a composite deprivation degree of 0.2137 for the whole country in 1998/99 as compared to 0.2123 in 1991/92. This deprivation trend reveals that poverty levels had scarcely changed in Ghana. In fact, it even rose slightly during the nineties, contrary to the uni-dimensional analytical GLSS 4 report of an overall broadly favourable trend in poverty in Ghana during the 1990s.
Keywords: Ghana, fuzzy set, multi-dimensional poverty, composite deprivation poverty index
JEL Classification: A1, A2, A23, A29, I3, I32, I38, I39, R2, R20, R21
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