Heath Prince
Macro-level drivers of multidimensional poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Explaining change in the Human Poverty Index
The University of Texas at Austin
poverty increasingly recognised multidimensional phenomenon development literature encompassing income also range factors related broadening individuals freedoms live life choosing poverty understood suggests alternative approaches poverty measurement reflecting multidimensionality may point towards alternative policies poverty alleviation imperative reinforce propoor policy development subsaharan africa evaluation findings reflect improvements wellbeing rather solely improvements national economies become selfevident despite decades marketled development policies much subcontinent remains mired deprivation recognised 2014 african evaluation associations biannual conference fresh thinking new evaluation metrics required order create policies effectively increase wellbeing article explores factors may account changes one metric multidimensional poverty developing countries united nation development programs human poverty index hpi primarily concerned measuring effects hpi policies activities relate explicitly meant encourage economic growth increased literacy improved health study focuses outcomes panel data set created purpose study hpi scores set 47 subsaharan countries 1990 2010 range indicators development literature theory suggest effect income poverty asking relationship indicators multidimensional poverty parallel set models developed measure response household consumption expenditure changes economic growth human capabilities indicators models estimated using fixed effects estimators cluster robust standard errors stata 12 consistent development literature household expenditure appears significantly positively related changes gross domestic product gdp per capita however hpi regressed gdp per capita statistically significant relationshipis observed even controlling range indicators calling question relationship economic growth wellbeing much subsaharan africa finding suggests development policies focus primarily economic growth means addressing multidimensional deprivation may misplaced