Tout est au mieux dans ce meilleur des ménages possibles The Pangloss critique of equivalence scales

Discussion Papers from Statistics Norway, Research Department

Abstract: A common approach to defining equivalence scales is to consider a household modelled as if it maximizes a single utility function. This may be founded on an assumption of the household maximizing a welfare function of individual utilities. For a positive analysis of the household, this may be appropriate, but it is argued that basing inter-household comparisons of welfare on this approach is generally not valid. The household will generally put different weight on the utility of the various household members, and this weighting does not necessarily correspond to society's aggregation of utility. This complication is called the Pangloss problem. An alternative definition of equivalence scales taking this into account is introduced and discussed.

Keywords: Equivalence scales; household; welfare function; Pangloss problem; intra-household distribution; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D12 D31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ssb.no/a/publikasjoner/pdf/DP/dp296.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssb:dispap:296

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Statistics Norway, Research Department P.O.Box 8131 Dep, N-0033 Oslo, Norway. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by L Maasø ().