Analysing poverty dynamics in a multidimensional perspective

Poverty is a complex concept in its nature and its measurement is far more difficult. Thus, it does not cover any universal description and any common measurement practice. In the most basic recognitions of poverty, there are two main opponents on identifying the poors which are known as absolute and relative poverty approaches. Influential economist Amartya Sen suggests that the conflict between the absolute and relative approaches can be overcome with a capability approach which considers the functioning of persons. In this approach, the capabilities of a person reflects the various combinations of functionings he can achieve. With this perspective, we are now more able to understand the real freedoms that people enjoy and more aware in evaluating human well-being. Thus in general, this idea defines the concept of poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon and puts multiple deprivations into analysis. However, another unresolved issue in poverty analysis is related to the dynamics of poverty and the traditional practice of poverty measurement is static that it analyses a specific year. But it is a fact that the living standards of households are open to unpredictable changes over time. Thus, time issue covers a vital characteristic in poverty measurement. Long-term (chronic) poverty is usually a result of economic, social and political processes which is also a chronic inadequacy of sufficient capacities to escape from the poverty trap. Thus, the main aim of this study is to understand the dynamic nature of poverty and compare its differences from a static approach by adding together the relevant data which gathered from TurkStat to show that the chronic poors are generally the most vulnerables and need different policy suggestions. Keywords: Poverty measurement, multidimensional poverty, poverty dynamics.