On Economic Poverty in Finland in the 1990s

Risto Sullström, Marja Riihelä and Matti Tuomala

No 264, Discussion Papers from VATT Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: We have examined recent trends in the poverty in Finland using two data sources, the Household Budget Survey (HBS) and the Income Distribution statistics (IDS). We have drawn on the recent literature on poverty analysis to analyse a range of poverty measures. Scalar measures were complemented by an investigation of stochastic dominance in the analysis of poverty. As regards trends in poverty over time, the long-run perspective available from the HBS indicates that from the early 1970s to the beginning of 1990s, the relative poverty rate has declined. The latter part of the 1990s was clearly different. We find that poverty rose and became more severe over the period 1995-1999 for a very broad class of poverty measures and a wide range of poverty lines. Whilst the total numbers in poverty during the 1990s on these various definitions have risen markedly, the composition of the poor has also changed significantly. There is little doubt that unemployed households are the most vulnerable group of the population.

Keywords: Poverty; poverty measures; ordinal poverty comparisons; Income distribution; Tulonjako; Taxation and Social Transfers; Julkisen talouden rahoitus ja tulonsiirrot; C100 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General; D630 - Equity; Justice; Inequality; and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement; I320 - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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