Do Monetary and Non-Monetary Indicators Tell the Same Story About Chronic Poverty? A Study of Vietnam in the 1990s

22 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2011

See all articles by Bob Baulch

Bob Baulch

International Food Policy Research Institute

Edoardo Massett

University of Sussex - Institute of Development Studies

Date Written: July 1, 2002

Abstract

This paper investigates whether monetary and non-monetary indicators tell the same story about chronic poverty using a unique two-period household panel from Vietnam in the 1990s. Using transition matrices and a simple measure of immobility, we find that monetary poverty is less persistent than malnutrition among adults and stunting among children (although there is some evidence of catch-up among stunted children). Monetary poverty is also found to be less persistent than primary and lower secondary school enrollments. Non-parametric tests on common samples reveal that the distributions of all these poverty indicators are different. Furthermore, defining chronic poverty to occur when an individual is monetarily poor, stunted, malnourished or out of school in both waves of the panel, we find the extent of overlap and correlation between the sub-groups of chronically poor is generally quite low. This implies that expanding the number of dimensions used to identify chronic poverty may not lead to greater clarity about the characteristics of chronic poverty.

Keywords: Poverty Dynamics, Vietnam, Data, Multidimensional Poverty Methodology, Multidimensional Poverty Measurement

Suggested Citation

Baulch, Bob and Massett, Edoardo, Do Monetary and Non-Monetary Indicators Tell the Same Story About Chronic Poverty? A Study of Vietnam in the 1990s (July 1, 2002). Chronic Poverty Research Centre Working Paper No. 17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1754461 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1754461

Bob Baulch (Contact Author)

International Food Policy Research Institute ( email )

1201 Eye St, NW,
Washington, DC 20005
United States

Edoardo Massett

University of Sussex - Institute of Development Studies ( email )

Brighton
Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9RE
United Kingdom

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