Deprivation in a multidimensional approach: an application to Brazilian data

Building on the capability approach, this paper discusses the multidimensionality of deprivation in urban Brazil between 2003 and 2008. Based on a temptative four dimensions index (e.g., living conditions, health standards, education levels and labor market participation) relating thirteen indicators, we find that the majority of individuals lived in households with no deprivation or deprived in only one indicator. Then, we explicitly addressed the inter-indicator covariance structure of the thirteen items using factorial analyses. Deprivation tended to come in pairs, as water and sewage, or child labor and school attendance, or in triples, as assets, functional illiterate and non-working adult. After this, we compared this index with poverty measured by income standards for states in Brazil. Evidences confirmed the regional inequality in both types of measurement. However, comparisons showed that correlations between them, although positive and significant, were not strongly. Finally, we discussed the dynamics of deprivation using data for synthetic cohorts and OLS and logistic models. We verified the association between attributes, such as sex, race, cohort and educational level and the propensity of a household to fall and continue in poverty or deprivation.