Povertà di reddito o di consumo? Aspetti teorici, metodologici ed evidenze sul caso italiano

Poverty is a pervasive phenomenon with severe economic and social consequences and should be !rmly contrasted by public policy. But what is the exact meaning of poverty? "e interpretation of the term indeed varies according to the various assumptions needed for its de!nition and measurement. In this work we explore the implications of using income or consumption-based poverty measures from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. More speci!cally, after reviewing the pros and cons of the two approaches, we use a novel dataset that records income and consumption information for the same individuals to verify how incidence and characteristics of poverty change according to the chosen proxy of well-being.