Comparaciones de pobreza multidimensional en las provincias de Azuay, Guayas y Pichincha

Abstract

Since the term of poverty has multiple interpretations depending on the perspective which it is analyzed, in this work it is assumed the concepts of several authors who manifest their multidimensionality, and especially the one proposed by UNDP (1997) as: “The denial of options and opportunities to live a tolerable life, being in a precarious situation, lacking of development capabilities and that are below a minimum standard accepted socially, which negatively affect their chances of survival and improve their quality of life”, that considers as poor those individuals that present deficiencies in several dimensions taking into account both internal and external aspects, dependent and independent of the individual and that also consider the environment in which the research is being developed; particularities that in the present study respond to the recognized rights in the Constitución de la República del Ecuador like Derechos del Buen Vivir. In this work, the poverty calculation of the provinces of Azuay, Guayas and Pichincha is carried out by applying the theory of fuzzy sets that has as characteristic the continuity of the degrees of belonging, finding in this point its applicability in the multidimensional measurement of poverty since an individual can be considered poor according to some criteria maybe universal or absolute, while according to other specific or particular criteria could not be considered as the mentioned, being the main contribution of this methodology, unlike others, the treatment that gives the average values (values close to the threshold), since it considers that an individual does not pass from a situation deprivation to no privation immediately, but within this interval there is a problem of gradual deprivation. In addition, the multidimensional poverty levels obtained under fuzzy sets theory are compared with the application of the Totally Fuzzy and Relative Approach (TFR) in its original specification form proposed by Cheli and Lemmi in 1995 and an alternative proposed by Cheli, D'Agostino and Filippone in 2001, and with the results obtained by the country's information sources. The results obtained based on fuzzy logic point out a higher incidence of poverty in the provinces considered, basically, because of one of the advantages presented by the index in terms of the choice of thresholds, and it also shows that the levels of position or hierarchy of poverty depend on the weighting function used in the calculation of the index