Absolute poverty, energy poverty and work intensity. the ad-hbs dataset as a key tool to assess the overlap of different poverty concepts

Abstract

Household poverty is a complex phenomenon that may be looked at from multiple perspectives. By using the original dataset AD-HBS – developed by matching microdata from the Household Budget Survey with administrative information from INPS archives –we analyse the overlap between the consumption-based absolute poverty indicator and two other indicators of household disadvantages widely used in Italian research and policymaking, i.e., the energy poverty indicator and the low work intensity index. In other terms, we investigate the joint distribution of the household absolute poverty status and the status defined according to either the energy poverty indicator or the low work intensity indicator. We find a partial – and heterogeneous across the national territory – overlap between absolute and energy poverty, while being in absolute poverty is also positively associated with low work intensity. Overall, datasets jointly recording different determinants of economic well-being, such as the AD-HBS including both income and consumption, may prove to be a crucial tool to study the multidimensional nature of poverty in Italy.