MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY IN BRAZIL: INCOME, ASSETS AND EXPENSES

This study presents deprivation in Brazil in a multidimensional perspective with dimensions related to household’s objective information, assets in the household and subjective evaluation concerning the dwelling. It was observed that households with similar income faced different levels of deprivation in many dimensions due to significant differences in household’s expense profiles. In urban areas, households with high levels of food deprivation spend relatively more on household’s rent, taxes and services, indicating that shelter and then food in the household are the very basic needs. Larger relative expenses with food in the household indicated higher levels of deprivation in all other dimensions. In rural areas, low income households could not overcome food deprivation even though they spend higher proportions of their income on this dimension. Moreover, for the other dimensions, larger expenses with food in the household promoted higher levels of deprivation.