Multi-dimensional poverty: a bibliometric analysis and content co-occurrence literature review

This research reviewed studies on multi-dimensional poverty based on a bibliometric analysis and content co-occurrence literature review. Using VOSviewer, a bibliometric analysis of 1513 journal publications extracted from the Scopus database was conducted to show the growth of articles over the years, the countries and journals with the greatest number of research articles, the keywords that have been widely used, and the leading themes on multi-dimensional poverty. Content co-occurrence analysis was also conducted to facilitate a systematic literature review. Four research clusters emerged as follows: “measuring multi-dimensional poverty”, “determinants of multi-dimensional poverty”, “effects of multi-dimensional poverty”, and “fighting multi-dimensional poverty”. The content analysis revealed that researchers generally relied on the Alkire-Foster methodology, and living conditions, income, education, and health significantly impacted multi-dimensional poverty. Generally, studies have established that multi-dimensional poverty negatively impacts people’s physical and mental health. Regarding the fight against multi-dimensional poverty, researchers found that farmers’ welfare improved from the ownership of resources, access to finance, and adoption of new crop varieties. The use of digital information technology was also beneficial. Based on the content co-occurrence literature review, future research directions are discussed. This is the first study to conduct a bibliometric analysis and content co-occurrence literature review of multi-dimensional poverty based on computer software.