chProblemsofdefinitionandmeasurement(福利经济学牛津大学,Barr).ppt

Chapter 6: Problems of definition and measurement Organization of the chapter 1. Measuring welfare 2. Poverty 3. Inequality 1: Individuals and families 4. Inequality 2: Aggregate measures 5. Conclusion 1. Measuring welfare 1.1. Individual welfare A theoretically sound definition of income Full income = money income + non-money income Where: Money income = wage income + non-wage income Non-money income = job satisfaction + flow of services from physical capital + own production + leisure Measuring individual income What do we include in income? Whose income, i.e. the income unit? Over what time period is income measured? 1.2. Social welfare The social-welfare function shows the relation between aggregate welfare and the welfare of individuals It can have various properties Non-decreasing Symmetric Additive Concave Constant relative inequality aversion 2. Poverty Problems in defining poverty Absolute or relative? Whose income – individual, family, household? Over what time period? Problems in measuring poverty Income is an imperfect yardstick of welfare The different dimensions of poverty How many poor people (the headcount measure)? How much poverty (the poverty gap)? How long (poverty dynamics)? Data problems The following lead to more people being counted as poor A higher poverty line A narrower definition of income (e.g. excluding home-grown produce) A narrower definition of the income unit (e.g. excluding the income of the extended family) A larger adjustment for household size A shorter time period over which income is measured Thus country A can have less measured poverty than B because of Differences in the distribution of pre-transfer incomes or More generous transfers, or Because poverty and inequality are measured differently (i.e. the difference could be a statistical artefact) 3. Inequality 1: Individuals and families 3.1. Defining equality and inequality Le Grand’s different definitions of equality Equality of final income Equality of publi