Subjective Economic Welfare

For data on subjective perceptions, they use survey responses in which respondents rate their level of welfare from poor to rich on a nine-point ladder. As an objective indicator of economic welfare, they use the most common poverty indicator in Russia today, in which household incomes are deflated...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ravallion, Martin
Other Authors: Lokshin, Michael
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 1999
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a Subjective Economic Welfare  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c Ravallion, Martin 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 1999 
300 |a 43 p. 
653 |a Macroeconomics and Economic Growth 
653 |a Income 
653 |a Financial Literacy 
653 |a Health, Nutrition and Population 
653 |a Rural Development 
653 |a Welfare 
653 |a Inequality 
653 |a Incomes 
653 |a Household Incomes 
653 |a Money 
653 |a Calculation 
653 |a Poverty Reduction 
653 |a Services and Transfers to Poor 
653 |a Information 
653 |a Poverty Diagnostics 
653 |a Population Policies 
653 |a Spending 
653 |a Bank 
653 |a Inflation 
653 |a Poverty Lines 
653 |a Demands 
653 |a Household Income 
653 |a Poverty Monitoring and Analysis 
653 |a Pensioner 
653 |a Family Allowances 
653 |a Unemployment 
653 |a Consumers 
653 |a Rural Poverty Reduction 
653 |a Health Systems Development and Reform 
653 |a Property 
653 |a Finance and Financial Sector Development 
653 |a Economic Theory and Research 
653 |a Consumer 
653 |a Demand 
653 |a Poverty Rate 
700 1 |a Ravallion, Martin 
700 1 |a Lokshin, Michael 
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520 |a For data on subjective perceptions, they use survey responses in which respondents rate their level of welfare from poor to rich on a nine-point ladder. As an objective indicator of economic welfare, they use the most common poverty indicator in Russia today, in which household incomes are deflated by household-specific poverty lines. They find that Russian adults with higher family income per equivalent adult are less likely to place themselves on the lowest rungs of the subjective ladder and more likely to put themselves on the upper rungs. But current household income does not explain well self-reported assessments of whether someone is poor or rich. Expanding the set of variables to include incomes at different dates, expenditures, educational attainment, health status, employment, and average income in the area of residence doubles explanatory power. Healthier and better educated adults with jobs perceive themselves to be better off, controlling for income.  
520 |a The unemployed view their welfare as lower, even with full income replacement. Individual income matters independent of per capita household income. Relative income also matters. Living in a richer area lowers perceived economic welfare, controlling for income and other factors. This paper-a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to better understand the relationship between objective and subjective economic welfare. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Policies for Poor Areas (RPO 681-39). The authors may be contacted at mravallion@worldbank.org or mlokshin@worldbank.org 
520 |a April 1999 - As conventionally measured, current household income relative to a poverty line can only partially explain how Russian adults perceive their economic welfare. Other factors include past incomes, individual incomes, household consumption, current unemployment, risk of unemployment, health status, education, and relative income in the area of residence. Paradoxically, when economists analyze a policy's impact on welfare they typically assume that people are the best judges of their own welfare, yet resist directly asking them if they are better off. Early ideas of utility were explicitly subjective, but modern economists generally ignore people's expressed views about their own welfare. Even using a broad set of conventional socioeconomic data may not reflect well people's subjective perceptions of their poverty. Ravallion and Lokshin examine the determinants of subjective economic welfare in Russia, including its relationship to conventional objective indicators.