Q-Squared: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Poverty Appraisal

Poverty analysis has been a battleground between qualitative and quantitative approaches. Practitioners of each approach seem to live in a world of their own, with little interaction with each other. But this state of affairs is changing. It is increasingly recognized that policy design for attacking poverty requires an approach that makes best use of the relative strengths of qualitative and quantitative analytical tools, applied to the situation at hand. This volume brings together the world leaders in analysis from both sides of the divide to push the dialogue forward. In brief and pointed expositions they characterise the main strengths and weaknesses of each approach, discuss these with concrete examples, and propose a way ahead for combining the two approaches fruitfully. Their deliberations and conclusions will be of interest not only to analysts but also to those who fund and implement the findings of poverty research.