The measurement of poverty intensity we use was initially advocated by Sen (1976), and modified recently by Shorrocks (1995). However, since Thon (1979, 1983) proposed arevision of the Sen index which in the limit is identical to that of Shorrocls, we refer henceforth to the SSR index. Section 2...

This study uses Indian unit record data from expenditure and employment surveys, in conjunction with State level indicators, to (a) investigate whether the backward classes and female headed households face higher poverty rates than other, and (b) examine the impact of poverty, along with a host...

We propose graphical methods to determine whether commodity-tax changes are "socially efficient", in the sense of improving social welfare or decreasing poverty for large classes of social welfare and poverty indices. We also derive estimators of critical poverty lines and economic efficiency...

The basic problem in poverty measurement is how to weigh the income of different groups. This is a normative problem on which people differ in opinion, and hence we should seek a way of dealing with the issue that takes into account this plurality. In the paper, we suggest an approach to poverty...

The Foster, Greer, Thorbecke (1984) class nests several of the most widely used mea- sures in theoretical and empirical work on economic poverty. Use of this general class of measures, however, presupposes a dimension of well-being that, like income, is cardinally measurable. Responding to...

This paper aims to explore how housing allowances and mortgage interest tax relief have evolved in recent years, against the background of falling disposable incomes and rising housing costs. The analysis focuses on seven EU countries (Greece, Italy, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and...

On the basis of anonymous (or cross-sectional) analyses, income losses during the Great Recession in a number of European countries were concentrated among the poorest ten per cent of the population. The anonymous approach however, which simply compares the distribution of income at two points...

The inclusion of women into the financial system promotes economic development. However, in Nigeria, women face disproportionate financial exclusion. The main purpose of this study was to examine the role of financial inclusion in women's economic empowerment within the Nigerian context....

In considering the economic impacts of climatic changes, economists frequently use annual national income as a proxy for social welfare. I show that such studies suffer from a significant bias, arising from the fact that such models typically ignore changes in mortality rates. Using panel data...

The socially optimal allocation has been regarded to be unspecifiable because of utility’s interpersonal incomparability, Arrow’s general possibility theorem, and other factors. This paper examines this problem by focusing not on the social welfare function but instead on the utility...