Geranda Notten works as a Full Professor in Comparative Public Policy at University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Her fields of interest include public policy, public administration, and economics. She has a strong interest in poverty and social policy, with her current research focusing on jurisdictions in Europe and North America. She studies the influence of poverty reduction policymaking on poverty and food insecurity. Her expertise in measuring poverty includes monetary and non-monetary indicators, including income poverty and material deprivation. Professor Notten holds a doctorate and master’s in economics from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Geranda Notten in the Media
Videos
Notten, G., Taking Stock: Are we measuring poverty correctly?, BNN/Bloomberg, 31 March 2023
Interview with Dr. Notten on Taking Stock on her work with Food Banks Canada on a Canadian material deprivation index and how the GrOcery Rebate will miss many poor Canadians.
Audio
Marcoux, P. & Notten, G., La pauvreté cachée du Canada, Radio Canada, 19 June 2024 at 15h51m ET.
Dans cet entretien, comme une auteure principale de la nouvelle étude de Banques Alimentaires Canada concernant l'indice de privation matérielle (IPM), Dr. Notten présente l'IPM comme une meilleure méthode de mesure de la pauvreté que l'un qui est en usage actuellement par Statistiques Canada.
Articles
Matern, R. Mendelson, M. & Notten, G., 5 things you should know about using a material deprivation index to measure poverty, Food Banks Canada Blog, 28 June 2024
In this blog post, Richard Matern, Michael Mendelson and Dr. Notten discuss five key takeaways from a new study by Food Banks Canada about how the material deprivation index (MDI) can be a better method of measuring poverty rates than the market basket measure (MBM) used in Canada today. The authors provide recommendations on the advantages and development of this method within the federal government to complement existing indicators to measure progress on poverty reduction in Canada.
Kirby, J., 2024 in charts: Experts predict what’s to come for housing, jobs, wages, interest rates and more, The Globe and Mail, 12 January 2024
In the Globe and Mail’s “2024 in charts”, Prof. Geranda Notten predicts that the 2022/3 food insecurity rates, when released in 2024, will show that an increasing number of households had to make difficult choices due to strong rises in especially food and shelter prices. Because prices won’t go back down to where they were, purchasing power of many such households won’t catch up any time soon either.
Notten, G., An inflation-proof methodology to measuring policy effects on poverty, Oxford University Press Blog, 12 May 2023
Based on a recently published paper by Dr. Notten and Anne-Catherine Guio, this blog post showcases a new methodology for measuring the effect of policies on material deprivation.
Notten, G., Getting a fuller picture of poverty in Canada: why the government’s official poverty measure is insufficient, The Conversation, 22 March 2023
This article discusses Dr. Notten's ongoing research with Food Banks Canada to develop an updated material deprivation index for Canada. Dr. Notten explains that such an index helps provide a fuller picture of poverty in Canada because it can account for a larger variety of living circumstances of families compared to measures of income poverty.
Notten, G., Social Policy Trends: Low income and material deprivation, University of Calgary, 24 March 2022
In this one-pager published by University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, Dr. Notten compares income poverty and material deprivation for Canada and Alberta, with Albertan’s having the lowest income poverty rate in the country but experiencing average rates of material deprivation.
Cornellier, M., Où est le filet, Le Droit, 14 March 2022.
In this interview for LeDroit, Dr. Notten comments on the effects of increases in the cost of living, their effects on poverty and the role of social safety nets.
Notten, G. and J. Kaplan, Material deprivation – Measuring poverty by counting necessities households cannot afford, Canadian Public Policy, 47(1), 1-17, 2021
In this open-access article, Dr. Notten uses unique data from a 2013 survey to measure material deprivation in Canada. This article was the runner up for the for the 2021 Vanderkamp Prize of Canadian Public Policy, Canada’s leading policy journal.
Presentations
Beyond income: The measurement, policy, and politics of poverty in Canada
In this keynote lecture, Dr. Geranda Notten discusses material poverty from the perspective of income, food insecurity and material deprivation. These perspectives provides related, yet distinct insights on poverty in Canada. Drawing from her ongoing research, Dr. Notten shares evidence on long-term and current trends and discusses their use in poverty reduction policymaking and politics.
Material deprivation: An updated index for Canada
In this invited presentation Dr. Geranda Notten shares her ongoing research on an updated material deprivation index for Canada during the Food Security Symposium organized by the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security. The research finds that one in four Canadians experienced a poverty-level living standard in April/May 2023.