Equivalization of incomes for household composition is accepted practice when measuring poverty but other variations in needs are rarely acknowledged. This paper uses data from two U.K. household surveys to quantify the extra costs of living associated with disability. The extra costs of...

Background: Over four million people in Australia have some form of disability, of whom 2.1 million are of working age. This paper estimates the costs of disability in Australia using the standard-of-living approach. This approach defines the cost of disability as additional income required for...

We show the extent to which public insurance and self‐insurance mitigate the cost of health shocks that limit the ability to work. We use consumption data from the UK to estimate insurance provided by government disability programmes. Individuals with a work‐limiting health condition, in...

We examine the living standards and health of working-age disabled people and disability benefits recipients over time in the UK. The UK’s disability benefits system (which is non-means-tested and in which receipt is unrelated to work status) has gone through a significant transformation since...

What are idiosyncratic shocks and how do people respond to them? This paper starts from the observation that idiosyncratic shocks are experienced at the individual level, but responses to shocks can encompass the whole household. Understanding and accurately modeling these responses is essential...