Income-dependent equivalence scales and choice theory: Implications for poverty measurement

Arbeitspapier

Equivalence Scales are a tool for removing the heterogeneity of household sizes in the measurement of inequality, and affect poverty assessments and poverty lines. We address the disadvantage that poor households may suffer due to their reduced ability to share goods within the household. This disadvantage is important to estimate and embed in standard analysis, as it seems to have a substantial quantitative impact on the measurement of poverty. We also suggest that future research on the role of subsistence incomes of different household types in utility functions may shed light on explanations for poverty and may guide anti-poverty policies.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 1157

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Measurement and Analysis of Poverty ; Household Saving; Personal Finance ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement ; Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
• Subject: equivalent incomes ; household-size economies ; inequality ; demographics and poverty ; child costs ; Generalized Equivalence Scale Exactness

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Koulovatianos, Christos ; Schröder, Carsten
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/251450
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET