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1.1 A Brief Overview An extensive body of empirical and theoretical literature deals with the mea surement of social welfare. This body can be decomposed in several different but related topics, all of which have implications for empirical studies in wel fare economics. One of these topics are household equivalence scales which help to compare welfare levels across households that differ in composition. An equivalence scale relates the income of any arbitrary household type to the income ofa referencehouseholdsuch that both households are equally well-off. Differences in household needs arise from differences in the households' de mographic composition which is, for instance, given by the number, age, and sex of the household members. The increase of household needs is not neces sarily proportional to the increase in the number of household members. Such a non-proportionality, for example, results from differences in the needs of adults and children, economies ofscale arising from the division of fixed costs among the household members, welfare gains from household production, and from common consumption ofcommodities bearing a within-household public good component.
List of contents
1.1 A Brief Overview.- 1.2 Objective of the Thesis.- 1.3 Structure of the Thesis.- Equivalence-Scale Measurement.- 2.1 Expert Approaches.- 2.2 Economic Approaches.- 2.3 Survey Approaches.- The Potential Dependence of Equivalence Scales on Income.- 3.1 Plausibility of Constant Equivalence Scales.- 3.2 Empirical Picture.- 3.3 Conclusion.- Equivalence Scales, Employment and Household Production.- 4.1 The Earnings-Capacity Argument.- 4.2 The Household Production Argument.- 4.3 Conclusion.- A New Consensual Approach.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 The New Survey Design.- 5.3 On the Choice of Income as an Indicator of Well-Being.- 5.4 Validity and Reliability: Test Methods.- Survey I.- 6.1 Motivation and Outline.- 6.2 Questionnaire Design.- 6.3 Breakdown of the Samples.- 6.4 Regression Model, Notation, and Data Preparation.- 6.5 Country-specific Regression Analysis.- 6.6 Cross-country Differences.- 6.7 Descriptive Analysis.- 6.8 Validity.- 6.9 Reliability.- Survey II.- 7.1 Motivation and Outline.- 7.2 On Internet Surveys.- 7.3 Questionnaire Design.- 7.4 Breakdown of the Samples.- 7.5 Regression Model, Notation, and Data Preparation.- 7.6 Country-specific Regression Analysis.- 7.7 Cross-country Differences.- 7.8 Descriptive Analysis.- 7.9 Validity.- 7.10 Reliability.- Conclusion.- List of Symbols.- List of Figures and Tables.- References.
About the author
Carsten Schröder ist als Labrador-Züchter, Ausbilder und Leistungsrichter im Deutschen Retriever Club und im benachbarten Ausland tätig.
Summary
1.1 A Brief Overview An extensive body of empirical and theoretical literature deals with the mea surement of social welfare. This body can be decomposed in several different but related topics, all of which have implications for empirical studies in wel fare economics. One of these topics are household equivalence scales which help to compare welfare levels across households that differ in composition. An equivalence scale relates the income of any arbitrary household type to the income ofa referencehouseholdsuch that both households are equally well-off. Differences in household needs arise from differences in the households' de mographic composition which is, for instance, given by the number, age, and sex of the household members. The increase of household needs is not neces sarily proportional to the increase in the number of household members. Such a non-proportionality, for example, results from differences in the needs of adults and children, economies ofscale arising from the division of fixed costs among the household members, welfare gains from household production, and from common consumption ofcommodities bearing a within-household public good component.
