Working Paper

Monetary and Multidimensional Child Poverty: Why they Differ

We investigate the effect of parental education on the concordance/discordance
between monetary and multidimensional child poverty. First, in a simple model of
parental investment in child outcomes, we demonstrate that the misalignment between
household income and parental education is a predictor of the mismatch between
monetary and multidimensional child poverty. Indeed, a match between these two
poverty measurements occurs whenever household income and parental education are
correlated. Second, using Tanzania NPS data, we find that parental education has a
negative effect on the probability that a monetarily non-poor child suffers some basic
deprivations, and a positive effect on the likelihood that a monetarily poor child suffers
no basic deprivations.