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Research interests
Development economics; human development; the capability approach; measurement
Sabina Alkire
Director, OPHI, and Professor of Poverty and Human Development
Sabina Alkire directs the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at ODID.
Her research interests include multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis, welfare economics, the capability approach, the measurement of freedoms and human development.
Together with Professor James Foster, she developed the Alkire-Foster (AF) method for measuring multidimensional poverty, a flexible technique that can incorporate different dimensions, or aspects of poverty, to create measures tailored to each context. With colleagues at OPHI this has been applied and implemented empirically to produce a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The MPI offers a tool to identify who is poor by considering the range of deprivations they suffer. It is used to report a headline figure of poverty (the MPI), which can be unpacked to provide a detailed information platform for policy design showing how people are poor nationally, and how they are poor by areas, groups, and by each indicator.
Previously, she worked at the George Washington University, Harvard University, the Human Security Commission, and the World Bank. She has a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.
She holds a DPhil in Economics, an Msc in Economics for Development and an MPhil in Christian Political Ethics from the University of Oxford.
Sabina Alkire teaches research methods and lectures on the core course in development studies for the MPhil in Development Studies, as well as offering an option on Poverty and Human Development.
Doctoral students supervised
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Books and monographs( ) Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis: A Counting Approach . , Oxford: Oxford University Press( ) (eds) The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications . , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction . , Oxford: Oxford University Press
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Journal articles and special issues( ) Consolidating and improving the assets indicator in the global Multidimensional Poverty Index . World Development( ) Children and Multidimensional Poverty. Four Measurement Strategies . Sustainability 16 (13) 9108( ) Multidimensional poverty and inclusive growth in India: An analysis using growth elasticities and semi-elasticities . Research on Economic Inequality 29( ) Revisions of the global multidimensional poverty index: indicator options and their empirical assessment . Oxford Development Studies( ) Measuring chronic multidimensional poverty . Journal of Policy Modeling( ) Changes Over Time in Multidimensional Poverty: Methodology and Results for 34 Countries . World Development 94 232-49( ) Multidimensional Poverty Reduction in India between 1999 and 2006: Where and How? . World Development 72 93-108( ) Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index . World Development 59 251-74( ) Multidimensional Poverty and the Post-2015 MDGs . Development 56 (1) 46-51( ) The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index . World Development 52 71–91( ) Selecting a Targeting Method to Identify BPL Households in India . Social Indicators Research 112 (2) 417-46( ) A Multidimensional Approach: Poverty Measurement and Beyond . Social Indicators Research 112 (2) 239-57( ) Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement . Journal of Public Economics 95(7-8) 476-87( ) Understandings and Misunderstandings of Multidimensional Poverty Measurement . Journal of Economic Inequality 9 289-314( ) Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty in China: Estimationa and Policy Implications . Chinese Rural Economy 12 4-10( ) Determining BPL Status: Some Methodological Improvements . Indian Journal of Human Development 2(2) 407-24( ) Agency and Empowerment: A Proposal for Internationally Comparable Indicators . Oxford Development Studies 35(4) 379-403( ) The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: Introduction to the Special Issue . Oxford Development Studies 35(4) 379-403( ) Subjective Quantitative Studies of Human Agency . Social Indicators Research 74(1) 217-60( ) Why the Capability Approach . Journal of Human Development 6(1) 115-35( ) Global Health and Moral Values . The Lancet 364(9439) 1069-74( ) Dimensions of Human Development . World Development 30(2) 181-205( ) A Practical Reasoning Theory of Development Ethics: Furthering the Capabilities Approach . Journal of International Develoment 9(2) 263-79( ) This Unemployment, Disaster or Opportunity . Theology 97(780) 402-13
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Chapters( ) Did Poverty Reduction Reach the Poorest of the Poor? Complementary Measures of Poverty and Inequality in the Counting Approach . In Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay Research on Economic Inequality , Emerald Publishing Limited( ) Beyond Headcount: The Alkire-Foster Approach to Multidimensional Child Poverty Measurement . In Isabel Ortiz, Louise Moreira Daniels, Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir Child Poverty and Inequality: New Perspectives , UNICEF( ) Multidimensional Poverty and Its Discontents . Measure for Measure: How Well do We Measure Development? , Paris: AFD, EUDN( ) Development: A Misconceived Theory Can Kill . In C Morris Amartya Sen: Contemporary Philosophy in Focus , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Poverty and Inequality Measurement . In S Deneulin, L Shahani An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency , Earthscan and International Development Research Centre( ) The Human Development and Capability Approach . In S Deneulin, L Shahani An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency , Earthscan and International Development Research Centre( ) The Capability Approach as a Development Paradigm . In E Chiappero-Martinetti Debating Global Society: Reach and Limits of the Capability Approach , Milan: Feltrinelli Foundation( ) A Normative Framework for Development . In S Deneulin, L Shahani An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency , Earthscan, International Development Research Centre( ) Counting and Multidimensional Poverty . In J von Braun, R Vargas Hill, R Pandya-Lorch The Poorest and Hungry: Assessment, Analysis and Actions , Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute( ) Concepts and Measures of Agency . In K Basu, R Kanbur Arguments for a Better World: Essasys in Honour of Amartya Sen; Volume 1: Ethics, Welfare and Measurement , Oxford: Oxford University Press( ) Using the Capability Approach: Prospective and Evaluative Analyses . In F Comim, M Qizilbash, S Alkire The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Choosing Dimensions: The Capability Approach and Multidimensional Poverty . In N Kakwani, J Silber The Many Dimensions of Poverty , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) Introduction . In F Comim, M Qizilbash, S Alkire The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Measuring Freedoms Alongside Well-Being . In I Gough, J Allister McGregor Well-Being in Developing Countries: New Approaches and Research Strategies , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Public Debate and Value Construction in Sen's Approach . In A Kaufman Capabilities Equality: Basic Issues and Problems , London: Routledge( ) Medical Exceptionalism in International Migration: Should Doctors and Nurses be Treated Differently? . In K Tomas, J Palme Globalizing Migration Regimes , Aldershot: Ashgate( ) Needs and Capabilities . In S Reader The Philosophy of Need , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Structural Injustice and Democratic Practice: The Trajectory in Sen's Writings . In S Deneulin, M Nebel, N Sagovsky Transforming Unjust Structures: The Capability Approach , Dordrecht: Springer( ) Religion and Development . In D A Clark The Elgar Companion to Development Studies , Cheltenham: Edward Elgar( ) The Role of External Actors . In V Rao, M Walton Culture and Public Action: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on Development Policy , Stanford: Stanford University Press( ) Concepts of Human Security . In L Chen, S Fukuda-Parr, E Seidensticker Human Insecurity in a Global World , Cambridge: Harvard Univeristy Press( ) Individual Motivation, Its Nature, Determinants and Consequences for Within-Group Behaviour . In J Heyer, F Stewart, R Thorp Group Motivation and Development: Is the Market Destroying Cooperation? , Oxford: Oxford University Press( ) Global Citizenship and Common Values . In N Dower, J Williams Global Citizenship: A Critical Reader , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press( ) The Basic Dimensions of Human Flourishing: A Comparison of Accounts . In N Biggar, R Black The Revival of Natural Law , Aldershot: Ashgate
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Working papers( ) Designing the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (HDI) . OPHI Working Paper No. 37; UNDP Human Development Report Background Paper( ) Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries . OPHI Working Paper No. 38; UNDP Human Development Report Background Paper( ) Human Development: Definitions, Critiques and Related Concepts . OPHI Working Paper No. 36; UNDP Human Development Report Background Paper
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Other publications( ) Multidimensional Poverty and COVID-19 Risk Factors. A Rapid Overview of Interlinked Deprivations Across 5.7 Billion People . OPHI Briefing 53 , Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford( ) Multidimensional Poverty and the Risk from COVID-19 . Dimensions 9 7-10( ) Multidimensional Poverty and Vulnerability to COVID-19. A Rapid Overview of Disaggregated and Interlinked Vulnerabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa . OPHI Briefing 54 , Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford( ) Multidimensional Poverty and COVID-19 Risk Factors. A Rapid Overview of Interlinked Deprivations Across 5.8 Billion People . OPHI Briefing 53a , Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford( ) Multidimensional Poverty and Vulnerability to COVID-19. A Rapid Overview of Disaggregated and Interlinked Vulnerabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa . OPHI Briefing 54a , Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford( ) Destitution: Who and where are the poorest of the poor? . Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative Policy Briefing , Oxford: OPHI( ) The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2014: An Overview . Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative Policy Briefing , Oxford: OPHI( ) Poverty in Rural and Urban Areas? . Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative Policy Briefing , Oxford: OPHI
Overview
Teaching & Supervision
News
Publications
In the media