Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative
Approaches to Poverty Monitoring
Quantitative approach typically involves collection of quantifiable
data through sample surveys and structured interviews and analyzing them
through statistical techniques. Qualitative approach typically uses
purposive sampling and semi-structured or interactive interviews to
collect data relating to people’s judgments, attitudes, preferences,
priorities and/or perceptions about a subject, and analyze them through
sociological and/or anthropological research techniques. Through the
years, the two schools of methods namely quantitative and qualitative
approaches to poverty monitoring have been in separate turfs. Poverty
analysts of the two traditions have been highly active in the policy
debates of the past decade. While the use of quantitative approaches has
been dominant, the use of the qualitative ones has been increasing.
* Thus, integrating the two schools has been an issue especially
due to their complementarities.
LINKS:
"QUAL-QUANT Qualitative and Quantitative Poverty Appraisal:
Complementarities, Tensions and the Way Forward," Contributions to a
Workshop held at Cornell University (contains multiple papers)
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/sk145/papers/QQZ.pdf
"Can Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Serve Complementary
Purposes for Policy Research? Evidence from ACCRA," by Dan Maxwell
http://www.ifpri.org/divs/fcnd/dp/papers/dp40.pdf
"Sociological Explanations between Micro and Macro and the
Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods," by Udo Kelle
http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-01/1-01kelle-e.pdf
"Introduction: On the Compatibility Between Qualitative and
Quantitative Research Methods," by Nigel Fielding and Margrit Schreier
http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-01/1-01hrsg-e.pdf
"Seeing Our Quantitative Counterparts: Construction of Qualitative
Research in a Roundtable Discussion" by Jean A. Saludadez & Primo G.
Garcia
http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-01/1-01saludadezgarcia-e.pdf
A Methodological Framework for Combining Quantitative and Qualitative
Survey Methods
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ssc/dfid/booklets/qqa.pdf
"Qualitative and Mixed Methods in Poverty and Inequality Analysis" by
Michael Woolcock
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/assessing/pdf/woolcock.pdf
Qualitative Research
http://qualitative-research.net/fqs/
*Ravi Kanbur, "Q-SQUARED? A Commentary on Qualitative and
Quantitative Poverty Appraisal."