The Distribution of Welfare and Household Production: International Perspectives

by Edited by Stephen P. Jenkins , Arie Kapteyn , Bernard M. S. van Praag

• ISBN13: 9780521623025
• ISBN10: 0521623022
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-05-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

When the overall economic pie is not growing, then how it is shared out becomes more important. This book is a collection of new empirical and theoretical papers by a distinguished set of international authors about the personal distribution of welfare and household production. Comparisons of poverty, income inequality and income capacity across countries in Europe and North America are the basis of Part I. Three chapters introduce subjective (non-monetary) approaches to the assessment of personal economic welfare. In Part III new results about the measurement of inequality and poverty are derived. Part V explores topics examining interactions between personal welfare and the resources derived from one's household, the labor market, and from the government through the tax and benefit system. The book reflects the interests of, and is a memorial to, the late Aldi Hagenaars.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix	(1)
List of tables	x	(5)
Acknowledgments	xv	(1)
Notes on the contributors	xvi
1 Introduction	1	(12)
Stephen P. Jenkins
Arie Kapteyn
Bernard M.S. van Praag
2 Escape from cittadella neoclassica: reflections on the work of Aldi Hagenaars	13	(12)
Joop Hartog
Part I Cross-national comparisons of the distribution of welfare	25	(154)
3 Patterns of poverty in Europe	25	(25)
Aldi Hagenaars
Klaas de Vos
Asghar Zaidi
4 Comparing poverty rates across countries: a case study of France and the United Kingdom	50	(25)
Anthony B. Atkinson
Karen Gardiner
Valerie Lechene
Holly Sutherland
5 The distribution of welfare: inequality, earnings capacity, and household production in a comparative perspective	75	(36)
Peter Saunders
Inge O'Connor
Timothy Smeeding
6 Mobility and inequality in the 1980s: a cross-national comparison of the United States and Germany	111	(68)
Richard Burkhauser
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Stephen Rhody
Part II Subjective approaches to welfare measurement	179	(54)
7 Poverty perceptions and the poverty line	179	(15)
Yoram Amiel
Frank Cowell
8 Using subjective information in microeconomic modeling: an application to vacation behavior	194	(17)
Peter Kooreman
9 Well-being and labor market status	211	(22)
Isolde Wottiez
Jules Theeuwes
Part III Summarizing welfare	233	(88)
10 Do inequality measures measure inequality?	233	(17)
Gary Fields
11 Deprivation profiles and deprivation indices	250	(18)
Anthony Shorrocks
12 Poverty orderings for the Dalton utility-gap measures	268	(18)
James Foster
Yong Jin
13 Changing welfare in a changing world?: income and expenditure inequalities in the Czech and Slovak republics	286	(35)
Thesia Garner
Part IV The household, income, and welfare	321	(97)
14 The distribution of income, wealth, and economic security: the impact of unemployment insurance reforms in Canada	321	(25)
Lars Osberg
Sadettin Erksoy
Shelley Phipps
15 A structural model of the determinants of educational success	346	(18)
Robert Haveman
Kathryn Wilson
Barbara Wolfe
16 Equivalence scales and household welfare: what can be learned from household budget data?	364	(17)
Richard Blundell
17 Equivalence scales and the distribution of well-being across and within households	381	(17)
David Johnson
18 The incomes of UK women: limited progress towards equality with men?	398	(20)
Stephen P. Jenkins
Nigel O'Leary
Index	418