This paper aims to understand why and by how much perceptions of social ranking differ from objective rankings based on self-reported income. It focuses on the middle class because persons of all income levels show a strong bias towards identifying themselves as middle class. Using a rich...

This document presents a systematic review of empirical approaches to the identification and measurement of the middle class as the concept is used in the applied literature. It then presents an arguably less arbitrary definition of the middle class which is based on sound principles of...

Some approaches to measuring the middle class are based on an arbitrary definition such as income quartiles or the poverty line. Foster and Wolfson have recently developed a methodology without arbitrariness. We apply this tool and a complementary method–the relative distribution approach–to...

Healthcare financing the world over has been of great concern to both developed and developing countries. Thus, policies on how to finance and provide healthcare to an entire nation to include both the formal and informal sectors, rural and urban areas in low-and-middle-income countries is a...

This article studies temporal variations in wealth levels and distribution in an Ottoman context during the eighteenth century. By analysing the probate estate inventories of the Muslim deceased in Kastamonu, located in north-central Anatolia, we demonstrate that real wealth levels generally...

Court records are used extensively in historical research. Preserved as summaries of daily legal proceedings, they give historians a unique opportunity of access to the information about the names, personal characteristics, and socio-economic status of individuals and about the laws, local...

The main contribution of this paper with respect to previous work is the use of data on subjective perceptions to identify the Latin American middle classes. This paper provides a set of comparisons between objective and subjective definitions of middle-class using data from the 2007 World...

This paper analyzes two social protection policies implemented in Argentina, with emphasis on those most vulnerable people: the `Plan de Inclusión Previsional´ (2005) for the elderly and the `Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social´ (2009), aimed to children and adolescents...

The coverage rate of elderly people in Argentina has faced a declining tendency since the late ’90. With the aim to face this problem, in 2005 it was implemented the Plan de Inclusión Previsional which allowed elderly people to join a facility plan of payment to access to previsional benefit....

The recent implementation of the Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social in Argentina, which aim is to fight against short term poverty and promote investment in human capital, has generated a broad debate in society. This paper analyzes the impact of this program on poverty and...