Arbeitspapier

Relative inequality and poverty in Germany and the United States using alternative equivalence scales

German and United States data from the Luxembourg Income Study are used to compare the relative economic well-being of Germans and Americans in the 1980s. In our analysis we use both official equivalence scales and consumption-based country-specific equivalence scales developed for Germany and the United States by Merz et al. (1993). We verify previous studies that show that inequality and the incidence of poverty are greater in the United States than in Germany. Overall inequality and poverty levels are found not to be sensitive to the equivalence scale used. But the official German equivalence scales yields quite different results from those using all other scales with respect to the relative income and poverty levels of vulnerable groups within the population, especially older single people.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: FFB Diskussionspapier ; No. 12

Classification
Wirtschaft
Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: General
Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
Distribution: General
Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
Subject
alternative equivalence scale
Germany
USA
distribution of income
inequality
poverty
Alternative Äquivalenzskalen
Deutschland
USA
Einkommensverteilung
Ungleichheit
Armut

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Burkhauser, Richard V.
Smeeding, Timothy M.
Merz, Joachim
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Universität Lüneburg, Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)
(where)
Lüneburg
(when)
1994

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Burkhauser, Richard V.
  • Smeeding, Timothy M.
  • Merz, Joachim
  • Universität Lüneburg, Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)

Time of origin

  • 1994

Other Objects (12)