Growing poverty and increasingly unequal social structures in Mexico. A critical and integrated perspective.

Abstract

CONEVAL’s official methodology for measuring multidimensional poverty (OMMMP) is critically evaluated, which underestimates poverty, and is contrasted with the LPMM. It is shown that in Mexico: 1) incidence of poverty (h) in 2014 is higher than in 1977; 2) the number of poor (q) between 1992 and 2014 grew both in the LPMM as in the dimensions of income and UBN (Unsatisfied Basic Needs); 3) by removing OMMMP’s word play act to separate 'vulnerable' from 'poor', the deprived population is similar in both methods; 4) there is a big contrast between stagnation of q with one or more social deprivations in OMMMP and the significant growth of q (UBN) in the LPMM; 5) between 2006-2014 not only h, but the intensity (I) of poverty, the equivalent incidence (hi) increased; 6) there were strong changes in the social pyramid: dropsin the proportions of non-poor and of moderately poor populations, and rise in the proportion of extreme poverty; 7) there are strong inequalities between states and between rural, urban and metropolitan settlements.