False positives or hidden dimensions: what can monetary and multidimensional measurement tell us about child poverty in Vietnam? Roelen K, Gassmann F, de Neubourg C. False positives or hidden dimensions: what can monetary and multidimensional tell us about child poverty in Vietnam? Int J Soc Welfare 2011: ••: ••–•• © 2011 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. A widely used division between poverty measures based on conceptual underpinnings and analytical outcomes is that of monetary versus multidimensional measures. Comparisons of the use and outcomes of the two methods have shown that they predominantly provide different pictures of poverty in terms of size, rank and group. This article contributes to the long- standing and ongoing debate on poverty measurement by comparing the use of monetary and multidimensional poverty approaches, with a special focus on children in Vietnam and extending the empirical analysis beyond conventional methods. In addition to investigating whether poverty out- comes or groups of identified poor children differ when using the two different poverty measures, we also investigated the drivers underlying these differences. Findings confirm a considerable degree of mismatch: both poverty measures proved to be inadequate proxies for the other and factors underlying the identification by either one or both of the measures differed. Keetie Roelen 1 , Franziska Gassmann 2 , Chris de Neubourg 3 1 Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK 2 Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, Maastricht, The Netherlands 3 UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy Key words: child poverty, poverty measurement, Vietnam, mul- tidimensional poverty, capability approach Keetie Roelen, Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK E-mail: k.roelen@ids.ac.uk Accepted for publication 26 June 2011 Introduction The debate on the definition, conceptualisation and measurement of poverty is long-standing and remains ongoing. A division of poverty approaches that is often made within this debate is that of monetary versus multidimensional approaches, each with their own advantages and shortcomings (see Laderchi, Saith & Stewart, 2003). While some scholars focus on the discussion on the theoretical and ideological underpin- nings of these approaches, others have investigated the issue from an empirical or analytical perspective. As a result, it is widely established that different approaches do not only differ in terms of their conceptual founda- tions (see e.g., Laderchi, 1997; Laderchi et al., 2003) but also with respect to empirical outcomes (see e.g., Baulch & Masset, 2003; Klasen, 2000; Maltzahn & Durrheim, 2007; Nolan & Whelan, 2009). Despite the range of evidence on the topic, the majority of empiri- cal studies have not moved beyond the notion that the degree of overlap in poverty outcomes is limited and biased towards different groups in society. Modest analysis has been undertaken to assess the factors and dynamics underlying this limited degree of overlap. The issue of child poverty remains hidden and under-prioritised, despite the wide acknowledgement that children deserve a special focus within the poverty and development debate and that child-focused policy analyses are crucial in order to account for children’s special situations (see Ben-Arieh, 2000; Minujin, Delamonica, Gonzalez & Davidziuk, 2005; Roelen, Gassmann & de Neubourg, 2009). Poverty is an unde- sirable and, to many, an unacceptable phenomenon.An extensive body of research has shown that the hardship of poverty is even more undesirable when it concerns children, due to its far-reaching short-term and long- run negative implications in terms of health, education and labour market outcomes (see Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997; Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 1997, 2000; Haveman & Wolfe, 1995). Children living in poverty DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00836.x Int J Soc Welfare 2011: ••: ••–•• INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE ISSN 1369-6866 © 2011 The Author(s) International Journal of Social Welfare © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA 1