Child monetary poverty and multidimensional deprivations: Why they differ

Abstract

We analyse the causal effect of parental education on the potential mismatch between child monetary poverty and multidimensional deprivations. First, in a simple model of parental investment in child outcomes, we demonstrate that the misalignment between household monetary resources and parental education causes a mismatch. Indeed, a match between poverty and deprivation occurs whenever household consumption expenditure and parental education are correlated. Second, using micro-level data from Tanzania, we find that parental education has a negative effect on the probability that a monetarily non-poor child suffers some basic deprivations, and a positive effect on the likelihood that a monetarily poor child suffers no basic deprivations.