Page 68 - The Importance of Common Metrics for Advacing Social Science Theory and Research

The Importance of Common Metrics for Advancing Social Science Theory and Research: A Workshop Summary
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13034.html

56 THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMON METRICS

The varying purposes for which they are used make common measures very
difficult, if not impossible.

MEASURING POVERTY: THE QUESTION OF STANDARDIZATION
Robert Michael (University of Chicago) discussed the measurement of
poverty in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of standardization of
a scientific concept. He began by reviewing the measurement of poverty—
how it is done and whether there is or is not science involved. He then
reflected on lessons learned from the fact that, for the past half-century, the
United States has had an officially sanctioned standardized measure of this
particular construct, which forms the basis of many programs. He began
by tracing five steps to measuring poverty:

1. Choose a concept of poverty. It can be a relative or an absolute
concept. Science can provide guidance about the concept, but it
cannot help with issues of relative or absolute. It can explain the
implications but not distinguish right from wrong.
2. Select a unit of observation or analysis—individual, family, or
household. The individual is probably the best unit for measuring
poverty, because utility and well-being are generally individual-
ized notions. However, individualized metrics of poverty are not
conventionally seen. Most use family (connected by blood or con-
tract) or household (everybody living under one roof and pooling
resources).
3. Determine the poverty threshold level and decide how to adjust
that level across units, time, and location. Acceptable equivalents
across units must be determined, and this typically is based on some
kind of underlying understanding of the science involved. Adjust-
1
ments also must be made over time. Over time, prices change, the
consumption bundle underlying the notion may change, and the
product and the social norms may change. Adjustments for region
or location may be required if prices vary by geography.
4. Determine what resources to include. Theory or science may call
for consumption as the appropriate concept to measure, but be-

1 Michael described the antifamily element of the current U.S. definition of poverty. Two
cohabiting people who are unrelated each have their own individual poverty threshold. If
they married, the poverty threshold that would be applied to them would not be two times
the one; it would be the scale equivalent level for two than one. Thus marrying would move
many people near the poverty level out of poverty and make them no longer eligible for a
lot of the programs they are eligible for if cohabiting and living together but treated as two
separate individuals.

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