Multidimensional Poverty in the U.S.

Friday, December 11th, 2020
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST
WebEx

This event was the tenth webinar of the “Facing Inequality” series, hosted by the Institute for International Economic Policy. This virtual series focuses on current and emerging inequality issues in the U.S. and around the globe – especially those revealed by the current COVID-19 pandemic. It brings together historians, economists, sociologists, political scientists, and epidemiologists, within the academy and without, to present work and discuss ideas that can facilitate new interdisciplinary approaches to the problem of inequality. This is a platform for dialogue and debate. We invite you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.

The “Facing Inequality” series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director James Foster, Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Faculty Affiliate Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History. The series is co-sponsored by the GW Interdisciplinary Inequality Series, co-organized by Prof. Jackson from the Department of History and Prof. Bryan Stuart from the Department of Economics.

There is no doubt that poverty and wellbeing are multidimensional concepts that go well beyond monetary values. The UN, the World Bank, and dozens of countries around the world have developed their own multidimensional measures of poverty and deprivation to reflect this reality, guide policy, and monitor progress. Could this transformative approach be relevant for the US, whose official monetary poverty measure was developed over 50 years ago? This webinar brought key researchers together to answer this question with the help of the latest research on multidimensional poverty in the US and Europe.

In this event Brian Glassman began with a discussion of his new paper, “The Census Multidimensional Deprivation Index: Revised and Updated,” which analyzes the Multidimensional Deprivation Index, released by the Census Bureau. Shatakshee Dhongde discussed her new paper, “Decade-Long View of Multidimensional Poverty in the United States,” which provides a comprehensive analysis of trends in multidimensional poverty in the United States. Lastly, Sabina Alkire presented her new paper “Chronic Multidimensional Poverty in Europe,” which develops contrasting measures for advanced economies, and applies them to the case of Europe.

This event was co-sponsored by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the Institute for International Economic Policy at GWU.

About the Speakers:

Brian Glassman is an Economist in the Poverty Statistics Branch of the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division at the U.S. Census Bureau. Dr. Glassman has a Ph.D. in Economics from Temple University and a Masters in Public Policy from the College of William and Mary, and his areas of interest include urban economics, labor economics, and poverty and income inequality.

Shatakshee Dhongde is an Associate Professor of Economics and a Provost Teaching-Learning Fellow at Georgia Tech. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. She is also a research affiliate with the Institute of Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research has focused on analyzing economic growth, inequality, poverty and multidimensional deprivation. She was awarded the Nancy and Richard Ruggles Prize for young researchers by the International Association of Review of Income and Wealth (IARIW). Her work has been published in several leading economics journals. Her research on measuring deprivation in the U.S. has been highlighted in national media, including NPR. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards at Georgia Tech.

Sabina Alkire directs the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). She is the Associate Professor of Development Studies in the Oxford Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, welfare economics, the capability approach, the measurement of freedoms and human development. From 2015–16, Sabina was Oliver T Carr Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics at George Washington University. Previously, she worked at the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, the Human Security Commission, and the World Bank’s Poverty and Culture Learning and Research Initiative. She holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.

About the Discussants:

James E. Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Co-Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at Oxford University. Professor Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His work underlies many well-known social indices including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published annually by the UNDP in the Human Development Report, dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) at USAID, the Gross National Happiness Index of Bhutan, the Better Jobs Index of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Statistical Performance Index of the World Bank. Prof. Foster received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University and has a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Universidad Autonoma del Estado Hidalgo (Mexico).

More From This Series