ISBN: 3790801836
TITLE: Variable Income Equivalence Scales
AUTHOR: Schrder
TOC:

1 Introduction 1
1.1 A Brief Overview 1
1.2 Objective of the Thesis 2
1.3 Structure of the Thesis 4
2 Equivalence-Scale Measurement 7
2.1 Expert Approaches 7
2.1.1 Literature Survey 7
2.1.2 Evaluation 9
2.2 Economic Approaches 9
2.2.1 Demand Theory 9
2.2.2 Literature Survey 11
2.2.3 Evaluation 17
2.3 Survey Approaches 20
2.3.1 Consensual Approach 21
2.3.2 Subjective Approach 25
3 The Potential Dependence of Equivalence Scales on Income 39
3.1 Plausibility of Constant Equivalence Scales 40
3.2 Empirical Picture 42
3.3 Conclusion 43
4 Equivalence Scales, Employment and Household Production 45
4.1 The Earnings-Capacity Argument 46
4.2 The Household-Production Argument 47
4.3 Conclusion 49
5 A New Consensual Approach 51
5.1 Introduction 51
5.2 The New Survey Design 52
5.3 On the Choice of Income as an Indicator of Well-Being 53
5.4 Validity and Reliability: Test Methods 53
5.4.1 Validity 53
5.4.2 Reliability 55
6 Survey I 57
6.1 Motivation and Outline 57
6.2 Questionnaire Design 58
6.3 Breakdown of the Samples 63
6.3.1 Demographic Situation 63
6.3.2 Income, Education, and Employment 64
6.3.3 Conclusion 66
6.4 Regression Model, Notation, and Data Preparation 66
6.5 Country-specific Regression Analysis 69
6.6 Cross-country Differences 74
6.7 Descriptive Analysis 77
6.8 Validity 82
6.9 Reliability 87
7 Survey II 93
7.1 Motivation and Outline 93
7.2 On Internet Surveys 94
7.3 Questionnaire Design 97
7.4 Breakdown of the Samples 100
7.4.1 Demographic Situation 100
7.4.2 Income, Education, and Employment 101
7.4.3 Conclusion 102
7.5 Regression Model, Notation, and Data Preparation 103
7.6 Country-specific Regression Analysis 105
7.7 Cross-country Differences 110
7.8 Descriptive Analysis 112
7.9 Validity 122
7.10 Reliability 127
8 Conclusion 131
Appendix 135
List of Symbols 149
List of Figures and Tables 153
References 157
END

