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Sabina Alkire

Contact

sabina.alkire@qeh.ox.ac.uk
+44 (0)1865 271915

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

  • Books and monographs

    Alkire, Sabina
    Paola Ballon, James Foster, Jose Manuel Roche, Maria Emma Santos, Suman Seth ( ) Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis: A Counting Approach . , Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    F Comim, M Qizilbash ( ) (eds) The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications . , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction . , Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Chapters

    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    Jose Manuel Roche ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Multidimensional Poverty and Its Discontents . Measure for Measure: How Well do We Measure Development? , Paris: AFD, EUDN
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Development: A Misconceived Theory Can Kill . In C Morris Amartya Sen: Contemporary Philosophy in Focus , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) The Capability Approach as a Development Paradigm . In E Chiappero-Martinetti Debating Global Society: Reach and Limits of the Capability Approach , Milan: Feltrinelli Foundation
    Alkire, Sabina
    S Deneulin ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    S Deneulin ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    J Foster ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    M E Santos ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Choosing Dimensions: The Capability Approach and Multidimensional Poverty . In N Kakwani, J Silber The Many Dimensions of Poverty , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
    Alkire, Sabina
    F Comim, M Qizilbash ( ) Introduction . In F Comim, M Qizilbash, S Alkire The Capability Approach: Concepts, Measures and Applications , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Needs and Capabilities . In S Reader The Philosophy of Need , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Religion and Development . In D A Clark The Elgar Companion to Development Studies , Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    L Chen ( ) Medical Exceptionalism in International Migration: Should Doctors and Nurses be Treated Differently? . In K Tomas, J Palme Globalizing Migration Regimes , Aldershot: Ashgate
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Public Debate and Value Construction in Sen's Approach . In A Kaufman Capabilities Equality: Basic Issues and Problems , London: Routledge
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Concepts of Human Security . In L Chen, S Fukuda-Parr, E Seidensticker Human Insecurity in a Global World , Cambridge: Harvard Univeristy Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    S Deneulin ( ) 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
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) Global Citizenship and Common Values . In N Dower, J Williams Global Citizenship: A Critical Reader , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
    Alkire, Sabina
    ( ) 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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