Publication
Title
Inequality, income, and well-being
Author
Abstract
Individual well-being depends not only on income but also on other dimensions of life, such as health, the quality of social relations and of the environment, employment, and job satisfaction. In this chapter we survey the economic literature on how to construct such overall measures of well-being. We distinguish three approaches: the capability (and functionings) approach, the use of subjective life satisfaction measures, and the calculation of equivalent incomes. We discuss the normative assumptions underlying these three approaches, focusing on two issues: the degree to which individual preferences are respected and where in each approach the boundaries of individual responsibility are drawn. We compare the measurement of inequality in well-being with the use of multidimensional inequality measures. We illustrate the general theoretical issues in three domains of application: measuring the effects of household size and composition in the literature on equivalence scales, valuing publicly provided goods and services, and making international comparisons of well-being involving international purchasing power parity comparisons.
Language
English
Source (book)
Handbook of income distribution : vol. 2A / Atkinson, Anthony B. [edit.]; et al.
Publication
Amsterdam : Elsevier , 2015
ISBN
978-0-444-59430-3
DOI
10.1016/B978-0-444-59428-0.00003-5
Volume/pages
p. 67-140
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Pilot-survey "Well-being and Preferences: a discrete choice experiment"
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
VABB-SHW
Record
Identifier
Creation 13.01.2015
Last edited 07.10.2022
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