Individual well-being is multidimensional and various aspects of the quality of life need to be jointly considered in its measurement. The literature on the subject has proposed many indices of multidimensional poverty and deprivation and explored the properties that are at the basis of these measures. The purpose of this chapter is to add intertemporal considerations to the analysis of material deprivation. We employ the EU-SILC panel data set, which includes information on different aspects of well-being over time. EU countries are compared based on measures that take this additional intertemporal information into consideration. If we follow the path of material deprivation experienced by each individual over time we obtain a picture which differs from the annual results. Since the measurement of material deprivation is used by the EU member states and the European Commission to monitor national and EU progress in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, our results suggest that time cannot be neglected. Countries should not only be compared based on their year by year results but additional information is gained by following individuals over time and producing an aggregate measure once time is taken into account.

peer reviewed