Poverty, Deprivation and Time: A Comparative Analysis of the Structuring of Disadvantage

In this paper we make use of the ECHP data-set to explore the structure and consequences of exposure over time to income poverty and life-style deprivation. Earlier work has provided evidence for a significant degree of uniformity across EU countries in the factors structuring deprivation. In this paper we show that both the scale and patterning of both types of persistence across country is very similar. However, although rates of volatility for income and deprivation measures are roughly similar, the processes of change themselves are actually rather different with deprivation structured more by factors related to socio-economic disadvantage, whereas persistent income poverty is influenced by factors which influence the income stream, but which do not necessarily substantially impact on current living standards. Shifting from a risk to an incidence perspective analysis, we show that conclusions relating to the composition of disadvantaged groups are substantially influenced by whether or not one takes deprivation persistence and its overlap with income persistence into account. When a multidimensional perspective on poverty dynamics is adopted very little support is offered for the argument that traditional inequalities based on class and the labour market are no longer major determinants of poverty and deprivation.