ARE OFFICIAL POVERTY STATISTICS NECESSARY?

Abstract

Caritas Switzerland has recently criticised the country's lack of official poverty statistics in strong terms, and called for the introduction of internationally accepted poverty measures. However, the fact that these measures are widely used is not a testimony to their reliability, which is more than questionable. It appears that Caritas Switzerland is actually seeking some empirical support for the interventionist social policies it supports. Given the success of Switzerland's decentralised social policies, the recommendation that the country should abandon its tradition and become a conventional European social democracy is surprising.