a column by Jeehoon Han, Bruce Meyer and James Sullivan for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Economic well-being depends on the consumption of not just goods and services, but also the consumption of time.
This column looks at leisure and consumption together for the same families by imputing the amount of leisure families consume in the Consumer Expenditure Survey, and finds a negative relationship between consumption and leisure.
Accounting for both leisure and consumption implies somewhat less inequality in society, and suggests that social welfare policies and the business cycle can alter the economic well-being of families by both altering resources consumed and through their effect on leisure.
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Showing posts with label economic_well-being. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economic_well-being. Show all posts
Thursday, 17 January 2019
Friday, 6 July 2012
Lifecourse determinants and incomes in retirement: Belgium and the United Kingdom compared
an article by Caroline Dewilde (Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam) published in Ageing & Society Volume 32 Part 4 (May 2012)
Abstract
This paper considers how social inequality in old age might be structured by previous lifecourse experiences. Specifically, it analyses the impact of ‘life-time’ family and labour market experiences on household incomes of older people in Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Prospective panel data and retrospective life-history information from the Panel Study of Belgian Households (1992-2002) and the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2005) were combined. The analysis sample comprised 481 Belgium men, 602 Belgium women, 577 British men, and 803 British women aged 60 years and over.
The results show that old-age income is indeed influenced by previous lifecourse experiences, and that differences between Belgium and the UK can be explained in terms of welfare régime arrangements. Family experiences have a larger impact on old-age incomes in ‘male-breadwinner’ Belgium, while in Britain labour market events are more important.
As social transfers in Britain are more aimed at poverty prevention and less at income replacement, a ‘scarring effect’ of unemployment persists even into old age. Also, the more of one’s career is spent in blue-collar work, self-employment or farming, the lower the income in old age.
This effect was found to be significantly stronger in Belgium than in the UK, despite the high level of ‘de-commodification’ achieved by the Belgian welfare state.
Abstract
This paper considers how social inequality in old age might be structured by previous lifecourse experiences. Specifically, it analyses the impact of ‘life-time’ family and labour market experiences on household incomes of older people in Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Prospective panel data and retrospective life-history information from the Panel Study of Belgian Households (1992-2002) and the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2005) were combined. The analysis sample comprised 481 Belgium men, 602 Belgium women, 577 British men, and 803 British women aged 60 years and over.
The results show that old-age income is indeed influenced by previous lifecourse experiences, and that differences between Belgium and the UK can be explained in terms of welfare régime arrangements. Family experiences have a larger impact on old-age incomes in ‘male-breadwinner’ Belgium, while in Britain labour market events are more important.
As social transfers in Britain are more aimed at poverty prevention and less at income replacement, a ‘scarring effect’ of unemployment persists even into old age. Also, the more of one’s career is spent in blue-collar work, self-employment or farming, the lower the income in old age.
This effect was found to be significantly stronger in Belgium than in the UK, despite the high level of ‘de-commodification’ achieved by the Belgian welfare state.
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