Multidimensional poverty in the Philippines, 2004–2013: How much do choices for weighting, identification and aggregation matter?

Multidimensional poverty comparisons can be sensitive to the choice of weights assigned to the indicators as well as the aggregate poverty measure used. This paper examines the robustness of trends in multidimensional poverty in the Philippines to these choices by presenting estimates for three alternative weighting schemes and three methods of identification and aggregation. Using data for 2004–2013, the paper finds evidence of a significant decline in multidimensional poverty that is robust to these alternatives, though the magnitude of the decline in and the dimensional contributions to aggregate multidimensional poverty are quite sensitive to the alternatives considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]