Two can live as cheaply as one… but three’s a crowd

Christopher Bollinger, Cheti Nicoletti and Stephen Pudney

No 2012-10, ISER Working Paper Series from Institute for Social and Economic Research

Abstract: To measure poverty, incomes must be equivalized across households with different structures. In this paper, we use a very flexible ordered response model to analyze the relationship between income, demographic structure and subjective assessments of financial wellbeing drawn from the 1991-2008 British Household Panel Survey. Our results suggest the existence of large scale economies within marital/cohabiting couples, but substantial diseconomies from the addition of children or further adults. This pattern contrasts sharply with commonly-used equivalence scales, and is consistent with explanations in terms of the capital requirements associated with additions to the core couple.

Date: 2012-05-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
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