Measuring the Joint Distribution of Household's Income, Consumption and Wealth Using Nested Atkinson Measures

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Ruiz, Nicolás
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	Following recommendations from the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission (2009), this paper proposes the use of a new methodology to measure the joint distribution of households. income, consumption and wealth. Based on a multidimensional extension of the Atkinson generalized mean framework, the paper justifies the application of this methodology based on a set of standard and acknowledged properties, proving that this is the sole methodology satisfying them all simultaneously. The derived multidimensional index has an intuitive structure, which allows evaluating the overall material conditions of households under different perspectives and with varying sensitivity to distributionnal issues. Under its general form, the index encompasses a class of sub-indices that impose various restrictions on its parameters; the paper discusses the extent to which different restrictions on parameters affect the multidimensional assessments of various population groups, and provides some empirical illustrations using those different specifications. The question addressed by the multidimensional measure presented here is whether the joint consideration of household income, consumption and wealth modifies substantially the picture of material living standards of different individuals and groups relative to the one provided by income alone. Based on the dataset used here, the paper provides strong evidence on the importance of such a multidimensional assessment. Dans le prolongement des recommandations de la Commission Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi (2009), cet article propose une nouvelle approche pour la mesure de la distribution jointe du revenu, de la consommation et de la richesse. En se basant sur une extension multidimensionnelle des moyennes generalisees a la Atkinson, l’utilisation d’une telle structure est justifiee sur la base de proprietes standards utilisees dans la cadre de la theorie de la mesure du bien-etre. Il est en outre demontre que la structure selectionnee est la seule forme possible satisfaisant l’ensemble des proprietes simultanement. Cette nouvelle mesure revet une structure relativement intuitive permettant d’evaluer le bien-etre materiel des menages selon differentes perspectives et avec une sensibilite ajustable aux inegalites, ce dans les differentes dimensions considerees. Sous sa forme generale, l’index contient en outre une variete de specifications se traduisant par differentes restrictions parametriques; l’impact de ces restrictions ainsi que leur signification economique sont discutes, theoriquement et empiriquement. La question centrale adressee par cette nouvelle mesure est ainsi de savoir si l’appreciation jointe du revenu, de la consommation et de la richesse est a meme d’alterer significativement la mesure des conditions de vie materielles des menages, en comparaison de l’approche standard se focalisant sur le revenu uniquement. Sur la base des donnees utilisees, ce document conclut sur la pertinence de cette nouvelle approche.
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.1787/5k9cr2xxh4nq-en
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/5k9cr2xxh4nq-en.pdf?accname=guest&checksum=AC1D5EA201B0144F3FCE016050D6B392&expires=1552084161&id=id
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.1787/5k9cr2xxh4nq-en
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article