Prioritarianism and poverty measurement

We apply the ethical view of prioritarianism to the measurement of poverty in a multidimensional setting. We consider two interpretations of the core prioritarian principle. In the welfarist interpretation an extra unit of well-being decreases poverty more, the worse off the beneficiary is. The resulting welfare-prioritarian poverty measures take a familiar form, but can be criticized from a resourcist point of view (following Sen's resourcist critique of utilitarianism). In the resourcist interpretation an extra unit of resources decreases poverty more the worse off the beneficiary is. Resource-prioritarian poverty measures exist, but only under atypical restrictions on the measurement of well-being.