The Behavioral and Welfare Analysis of Consumption: The Cost of Children, Equity and Poverty in Colombia

ISBN-13: 9781441953742 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 380 str.

Federico Perali

Opis

The motive force of human activity that propels the stream of progress is here caught at its source, in its most modest, material expressions. The mechanism of the passions acting as determinant in these low spheres is less complex and can therefore be observed with greater precision. All one need do is leave the picture its clear, calm colors and its simple design. Gradually, as that search for material well-being by which man is tormented grows and expand, it also tends to rise and pursue an ascendant course thorough the social classes. In 'I Malavoglia' it is still only the struggle for material needs. Once these needs are satisfied, the search turns into greed for riches and will be embedded in a bourgeois type . . . Giovanni Verga, from the Introduction to The House by the Medlar Tree (I Malavoglia) Motivation In the past decade, many less developed countries have undertaken structural adjustment programs with the hope of breaking the vicious circle of the depression that enveloped them during the 1980s and of loosening the suffocating grip of the debt crisis. Nearly always, macroeconomic stabilization implies a reduction of public spending and, consequently, a reduction of subsidies on wage goods and food production. Other macro policies, such as tariff elimination and exchange rates alignment, alter relative prices and may have significant effects on the level and distribution of income. Today, poverty and inequality are perceived as economic threats as a result of globalization and unbalanced market expansion.

Spis treści

Introduction. Part I: Theory. 1: A Demographically Modified Demand Model: Behavioral and Welfare Properties. 1. Introduction. 2. Modified Demand Systems. 3. Specification of the Barten-Gorman Linear Almost Ideal Demand System in Share Form. 4. Homogeneity, Adding Up and the Identifying Restrictions of the Demographic Parameters. 5. Symmetry and Concavity. 6. Nonnegativity and Monotonicity. 7. Specification of the Barten-Gorman Linear Almost Ideal Demand System. 8. Aggregative Properties of the Barten-Gorman Model. 9. Exact Aggregation and Interpersonal Comparisons. 10. Summary and Remarks. 2: Demographics and Quality: Household Production Theory and the 'Repackaging Model' Revisited. 1. Introduction. 2.Demographic Effects and Quality. 3. Relevance of Household Production Theory and the 'Repackaging Model' to Quality Measurement. 4. A Unified Approach: Objective versus Subjective Quality. 5. The Demographic Slutsky Equation. 6. Subjective Quality. 7. Summary and Remarks. 3: Household Equivalence Scales and Interpersonal Comparisons. 1. Introduction. 2. Equivalence Scales and the Cost of Children. 3. Interpersonal Comparisons and Equivalence Scales. 4. Interpersonal Comparisons and Behavior: the IB Property and the Identification Problem. 5. The Implementation of Interpersonal Comparisons of Well-Being. 6. The Distribution of Welfare. 7. Income Dependent Equivalence Scales. 8. Equivalence Scales and Intra-Household Allocation.9. Restrictive Measures of Well-Being. 10. Unrestrictive Measures of Well-Being. 11. Summary and Remarks. Part II: Econometric Applications. 4: Estimation of a Censored Demand System. 1. Introduction. 2. Modeling the Rate of Consumption in Poor Societies. 3. The Model within a Random Utility Framework. 4. Specification of the Reduced Form and Identification of the Structural Equations. 5. Estimation Method. 6. Data and Results. 7. Summary and Remarks. Appendix 4A: Descriptive Statistics and Variable Definition. 5: Indexes of Characteristics: Income and Substitution Effects. 1. Introduction. 2. Barten-Gorman Preferences and Behavior. 3. Barten-Gorman Commodity Specific Indexes of Characteristics. 4. Estimates of the Demographic Income and Substitution Effects. 5. Summary and Remarks. 6: The Cost of Children and the Distribution of Welfare. 1. Introduction. 2. Rank of a Demand System and Non-Parametric Tests of the IB Property. 3. The Second Engel Law and Economies of Scale. 4. The Approximate Cost of a Child: Engel and Rothbarth Parametric Equivalence Scales. 5. The Exact Cost of Children from a Complete Demand System: Equivalence Scales and the Distribution of Welfare. 6. An International Comparison. 7. Demographic Targeting. 8. Summary and Remarks. Part III: Policy Applications. 7: Microsimulations of Poverty and Inequality Using the Distribution of Welfare. 1. Introduction. 2. Bas

O autorze

Federico Perali is a Professor of Political Economy at the University of Verona, where he teaches Political Economy, Development Economics and Welfare Economics. He is also a founding member of the Center for Household, Income, Labor and Demographic Economics - CHILD, and has been a consultant for the World Bank, FAO, Unicef, the Italian Poverty Commission and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.