The Subjective Approach as a Tool for Understanding Poverty: The Case of Senegal

This article offers an analysis of poverty using a set of dimensions not yet explored particularly oriented on “the poverty felt. Poverty is measured here, not in relation to a standard or predefined threshold of income or expenditure, or based on criterions of welfare quantifiable, but through the perception that households have, themselves, of their socioeconomic situation (the household self-assesses poor or not). On this basis, we propose an econometric analysis to determine the factors which condition the subjective evaluation of the households of their standard of living, in Senegal in 2006. Besides the traditional factors (age, sex, environment (urban or rural) of residence and educational level of the head of the household), factors as the district of residence of household's head, the policies implemented by the State received by the household and the extent of corruption in the community, appear largely explained the poverty felt in Senegal.