Who Are the Poor in Greece? Analysing Poverty Under Alternative Concepts of Resources and Equivalence Scales

Abstract

A common problem in empirical studies deal ing with the identification of the poor is that their results tend to be sensitive to the selection of particular concepts of resources, equiva lence scales and poverty lines. This article aims to examine the robustness of the results of poverty analysis to the use of alternative con cepts of resources (consumption expenditure, current income, permanent income and a com posite index of basic housing amenities and consumer durable goods), equivalence scales (subjective, experts' and food scales) and pov erty lines (fractions of the mean of the respective distributions), with reference to Greece. The results of the analysis suggest that a number of characteristics of the poor in Greece are very robust to alternative choices. More specifically, poverty and, in particular, acute poverty are found to be closely associ ated with old age, residence in rural areas, low educational qualifications and, to a lesser extent, with lack of employment or employ ment in the agricultural sector, irrespective of the welfare indicator, the level of the poverty line or the size of the equivalence scales used in the analysis. Indeed, a number of groups fre quently cited in the public discourse as being at high risk of poverty are found to be either low poverty-risk groups or their categoriza tion is sensitive with respect to the choices made by the researcher.