The Welfare Interpretation of Family Size Equivalence Scales

Bruce Bradbury

Discussion Papers from University of New South Wales, Social Policy Research Centre

Abstract: Do family size equivalence scales have a welfare interpretation? Whilst many economists routinely use equivalence scales as a component of between-household welfare comparisons, others insist that choice over demographic composition means that such an interpretation is inappropriate. This paper discusses the conditions under which equivalence scales may be appropriately used for welfare comparisons, and concludes that they will often, but not always, be satisfied. In particular, the analysis suggests that distributional analysis should assume that equivalent income is different for the adults and children in each family.

Pages: 34 pages
Date: 1992-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/dp/dp037.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:sprcdp:0037

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from University of New South Wales, Social Policy Research Centre Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().