An Analysis of Poverty in Italy through a Fuzzy Regression Model

Abstract

Over recent years, and related in particular to the significant recent international economic crisis, an increasingly worrying rise in poverty levels has been observed both in Italy, as well as in other countries. Such a phenomenon may be analysed from an objective perspective (i.e. in relation to the macro and micro-economic causes by which it is determined) or, rather, from a subjective perspective (i.e. taking into consideration the point of view of individuals or families who locate themselves as being in a condition of hardship). Indeed, the individual “perception” of a state of being allows for the identification of measures of poverty levels to a much greater degree than would the assessment of an external observer. For this reason, experts in the field have, in recent years, attempted to overcome the limitations of traditional approaches, focusing instead on a multidimensional approach towards social and economic hardship, equipping themselves with a wide range of indicators on living conditions, whilst simultaneously adopting mathematical tools which allow for a satisfactory investigation of the complexity of the phenomenon under examination. The present work elaborates on data revealed by the EU-SILC survey of 2006 regarding the perception of poverty by Italian families, through a fuzzy regression model, with the aim of identifying the most relevant factors over others in influencing such perceptions.

The contribution is the result of joint reflections by the authors, with the following contributions attributed to S. Montrone (chapter 4), to F. Campobasso (chapter 1 and 2), to P. Perchinunno (chapter 3.1 and 3.2), and to A. Fanizzi (chapter 3.3).