Inequality and Needs
Some Experimental Results for Sri Lanka
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4120680 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Angus Deaton (0000-0002-9222-8023, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1982 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Pages | 35 |
| Publication date | 1982-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Population and Development Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2808105 |
| OpenAlex | W2008947905 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 3 |
It is generally recognized that, in view of the variable needs and demographic composition of households, neither per capita expenditure nor total household expenditure provides an adequate measure of household or individual welfare. Although the move from total to per capita expenditure makes some allowance for variations in household size, the crudeness of a simple head count excludes considerations of differential needs by sex or by age, as well as any allowance for household economies of scale to the extent that such exist. A more sophisticated approach can be based on nutritional needs, usually calorie counts, which are specific by sex and by age. By this, children count as fractions of an adult male, as do women in most schemes, so that family size can be expressed in terms of adult units given the demographic composition of the household. However, considerable difficulties arise in establishing what calorie intake is indeed necessary, since much depends on environment, climate, health, work habits, and so forth. Furthermore, such measures of need concentrate entirely on food, ignoring other elements of consumption, not all of which can be classified as dispensable luxuries. Nor can the caloric measures take account of social dimensions of consumption, so that very real but nondietary needs may be ignored however important they may be within the social structure inhabited by the household or individual. Since it is difficult to obtain reliable or useful information from direct questions about needs, an alternative indirect approach is worth exploring. This is provided by basing the calculation of equivalent adult scales on the analysis of household behavior using the cross-sectional data provided by a household survey. In this paper I discuss the basic theory underlying such attempts and report on some first experiments for Sri Lanka using the socioeco
Development economics · Economics · Inequality · Socioeconomics · Sri lanka · Economics of Agriculture and Food Markets · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Mathematics
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| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 1984 - 2013 (30) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |