CSB Working Paper, 2020, 7: Bad news does not come alone: Cumulative deprivation in Belgium

Well-being is a multidimensional concept. In addition to income, people care about non-monetary dimensions, like health and housing quality. To determine how a society is doing in this regard, it is important to consider both the distributions across these various dimensions and the dependence between dimensions. Do the same people score low on all dimensions, or do some score high on some dimensions and low on others? I say that individuals who occupy a low position on all dimensions of life at…

Well-being is a multidimensional concept. In addition to income, people care about non-monetary dimensions, like health and housing quality. To determine how a society is doing in this regard, it is important to consider both the distributions across these various dimensions and the dependence between dimensions. Do the same people score low on all dimensions, or do some score high on some dimensions and low on others? I say that individuals who occupy a low position on all dimensions of life at the same time, suffer from cumulative deprivation. The position of these individuals is particularly precarious, as a low score on one dimension is further reinforced by low scores on other dimensions. In this article, we chart cumulative deprivation in Belgium, based on the MEQIN dataset: a broad dataset containing detailed information on various dimensions of life (e.g., income, health and housing quality for a random sample of Belgians in 2016). Walloon women who are not in a relationship and who have not completed secondary education are particularly likely to suffer from cumulative deprivation. Finally, the discussion addresses several channels along which deprivation can accumulate across dimensions.