Multidimensional Elderly Poverty Index

Keyword: Elderly poverty index ; AF counting approach ; Multidimensional poverty

Abstract: Whereas the income poverty rate among Korean seniors reached around 46 percent as of 2015, according to the OECD’s standard, about 45 percent of income-deprived seniors (nearly 21 percent of all seniors) were multidimensionally poor seniors deprived in terms of assets, housing, or both, in addition to being deprived in terms of income.
Concerning the question as to whether half of all Korean seniors are as poor as the OECD’s relative poverty standard indicates, based upon our analysis, we can say that they are not, at least from a multidimensional perspective on poverty. Policymakers thus need to revisit and consider whether they should prioritize all seniors categorized as poor under the OECD’s standard as primary targets of policy efforts to alleviate poverty.

Table Of Contents: Ⅰ. Introduction 1
1. Research Background 3
2. Research Purpose 5

Ⅱ. Literature Review 7
1. Conventional Understanding of Poverty and Related Issues 9

Ⅲ. Research Content and Methods: Developing a Multidimensional Poverty Index 13
1. Necessity of a Multidimensional Poverty Index 15
2. Multidimensional Poverty Index: Analysis 16
3. Definition of the Multidimensional Poverty Index 19
4. Decomposition of the Multidimensional Poverty Index 21

Ⅳ. Results: Diverse Indicators of Elderly Poverty 23
1. Household Trend Surveys and Unidimensional Elderly Poverty Index 25
2. Korean Welfare Panel Surveys and the Adjusted headcount Ratio of Poverty Among Seniors 28
3. Conclusion of Analysis 44
V. Policy Implications 53
References 59