Evaluating Poverty Indicators among Government-Supported Households: A Multidimensional Approach

Poverty is an undesirable socio-economic phenomenon that endangers the political stability, social solidarity, and mental health of the different sections of society. The literature on poverty in recent years has not been limited to income poverty, but also to other aspects such as health, education, and living standards. By identifying patterns of poverty, instead of prejudging the suitable economic and social policies to combat poverty, we can explain the appropriate and effective policy on poverty at the community level in accordance with the nature of these patterns.

In the present study, with a multidimensional approach to poverty (including educational poverty, housing poverty, food poverty, health, and income poverty), the vulnerability of government-supported households in Iran were investigated. For this purpose, the expenditure information of government-supported households in 2017 was the basis of the study.

The results showed that nearly 47% of the households surveyed are below the food poverty line. In terms of depth and quality of dominance of different dimensions of poverty among the studied households, housing poverty has the largest poverty gap, followed by education poverty with a poverty gap of nearly 40%. In summary, the poverty gap in income and health dimensions in this study is very low compared to the mentioned dimensions. In general, it was found that government-sponsored households, in addition to income poverty, also suffer from poor health, housing, education, and food poverty.

Based on the findings, it is suggested that policy makers adopt and formulate policy-support tools in which the various dimensions of poverty are considered in the form of a comprehensive system.