IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v128y2016i1d10.1007_s11205-015-1019-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On Italian Households’ Economic Inadequacy Using Quali-Quantitative Measures

Author

Listed:
  • Luca Zanin

    (Prometeia)

Abstract

Motivated by an interest in investigating factors associated with poverty risks in Italy, our study provides insight into the relationship between various socio-economic, demographic, and behavioural variables and a new measure of the economic inadequacy of households. We propose that a household is in a condition of economic inadequacy when it simultaneously has difficulty making ends meet and is in arrears with payments of commitments for more than 90 days. To analyse the determinants of economic inadequacy, we use cross-sectional microdata collected through a structured questionnaire from a 2012 survey of household income and wealth conducted by the Bank of Italy. The results of the analysis show that the probability of economic inadequacy for Italian households is higher when the household is located in regions in southern Italy, has a low equivalent income, registers a decrease in income compared with that of a normal year, has a low liquidity ratio, pays rent for the house of residence, is over-indebted, is indebted to friends and relatives, and has an unhappy and impatient household head. We also propose constructing a composite indicator at the regional level that combines the percentage of households in relative poverty, as measured by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, and the percentage of households that we identify as existing in a condition of economic inadequacy. The composite indicator allows us to take into account some aspects of household living conditions that are not included in the measure of relative poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Zanin, 2016. "On Italian Households’ Economic Inadequacy Using Quali-Quantitative Measures," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 59-88, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:128:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1019-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-1019-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-015-1019-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-015-1019-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banks, James & Johnson, Paul, 1994. "Equivalence Scale Relativities Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 883-890, July.
    2. Karlsson, Niklas & Dellgran, Peter & Klingander, Birgitta & Garling, Tommy, 2004. "Household consumption: Influences of aspiration level, social comparison, and money management," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 753-769, December.
    3. John F. Helliwell & Robert D. Putnam, 1995. "Economic Growth and Social Capital in Italy," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 295-307, Summer.
    4. Enrico Fabrizi & Maria Rosaria Ferrante & Silvia Pacei, 2014. "A Micro-Econometric Analysis of the Antipoverty Effect of Social Cash Transfers in Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 323-348, June.
    5. Shawn Grover & John F. Helliwell, 2019. "How’s Life at Home? New Evidence on Marriage and the Set Point for Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 373-390, February.
    6. Dimitris Georgarakos & Michael Haliassos & Giacomo Pasini, 2014. "Household Debt and Social Interactions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1404-1433.
    7. Annamaria Lusardi & Daniel Schneider & Peter Tufano, 2011. "Financially Fragile Households: Evidence and Implications," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(1 (Spring), pages 83-150.
    8. Fersterer, Josef & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2003. "Smoking, discount rates, and returns to education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 561-566, December.
    9. de Vos, Klaas & Zaidi, M Asghar, 1997. "Equivalence Scale Sensitivity of Poverty Statistics for the Member States of the European Community," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(3), pages 319-333, September.
    10. Xi Chen, 2015. "Relative deprivation and individual well-being," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 140-140, April.
    11. Luisa ANDERLONI & Emanuele BACCHIOCCHI & Daniela VANDONE, 2011. "Household financial vulnerability: an empirical analysis," Departmental Working Papers 2011-02, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano, revised 03 Nov 2011.
    12. Gary S. Becker & Casey B. Mulligan, 1997. "The Endogenous Determination of Time Preference," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 729-758.
    13. Rosalba Radice & Luca Zanin & Giampiero Marra, 2013. "On the effect of obesity on employment in the presence of observed and unobserved confounding," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 67(4), pages 436-455, November.
    14. Lex Borghans & Angela Lee Duckworth & James J. Heckman & Bas ter Weel, 2008. "The Economics and Psychology of Personality Traits," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    15. Little, Roderick J A, 1985. "A Note about Models for Selectivity Bias," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1469-1474, November.
    16. Wilde, Joachim, 2000. "Identification of multiple equation probit models with endogenous dummy regressors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 309-312, December.
    17. Giarda, Elena, 2013. "Persistency of financial distress amongst Italian households: Evidence from dynamic models for binary panel data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3425-3434.
    18. Komlos, John & Smith, Patricia K. & Bogin, Barry, 2003. "Obesity and the Rate of Time Preference: Is there a Connection?," Discussion Papers in Economics 60, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    19. Rod Hick, 2014. "On ‘Consistent’ Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 1087-1102, September.
    20. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein & Ted O'Donoghue, 2002. "Time Discounting and Time Preference: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 351-401, June.
    21. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    22. Holden, Stein T. & Shiferaw, Bekele & Wik, Mette, 1998. "Poverty, market imperfections and time preferences: of relevance for environmental policy?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 105-130, February.
    23. Zanin, Luca, 2014. "On Okun’s law in OECD countries: An analysis by age cohorts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 243-248.
    24. Giampiero Marra & David L. Miller & Luca Zanin, 2012. "Modelling the spatiotemporal distribution of the incidence of resident foreign population," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 66(2), pages 133-160, May.
    25. Chiara Monfardini & Rosalba Radice, 2008. "Testing Exogeneity in the Bivariate Probit Model: A Monte Carlo Study," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(2), pages 271-282, April.
    26. DeVaney, Sharon A. & Lytton, Ruth H., 1995. "Household insolvency: A review of household debt repayment, delinquency, and bankruptcy," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 137-156.
    27. repec:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:p:140 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Klaas de Vos & M. Asghar Zaidi, 1997. "Equivalence Scale Sensitivity Of Poverty Statistics For The Member States Of The European Community," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(3), pages 319-333, September.
    29. David Griggs & Mark Stafford-Smith & Owen Gaffney & Johan Rockström & Marcus C. Öhman & Priya Shyamsundar & Will Steffen & Gisbert Glaser & Norichika Kanie & Ian Noble, 2013. "Sustainable development goals for people and planet," Nature, Nature, vol. 495(7441), pages 305-307, March.
    30. Bryant,W. Keith & Zick,Cathleen D., 2006. "The Economic Organization of the Household," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521801416.
    31. Maria Cracolici & Miranda Cuffaro & Peter Nijkamp, 2009. "A spatial analysis on Italian unemployment differences," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 18(2), pages 275-291, July.
    32. Orcun Kaya, 2014. "Is perceived financial inadequacy persistent?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(4), pages 636-654, December.
    33. Luca Zanin, 2013. "Detecting Unobserved Heterogeneity in the Relationship Between Subjective Well-Being and Satisfaction in Various Domains of Life Using the REBUS-PLS Path Modelling Approach: A Case Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 281-304, January.
    34. Burcu Duygan-Bump & Charles Grant, 2009. "Household debt repayment behaviour: what role do institutions play? [‘Welfare implications of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 24(57), pages 108-140.
    35. Bryant,W. Keith & Zick,Cathleen D., 2006. "The Economic Organization of the Household," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521805278.
    36. de Oliveira, Angela C.M. & Eckel, Catherine C. & Croson, Rachel T.A., 2014. "Solidarity among the poor," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 144-148.
    37. Martina Celidoni, 2015. "Decomposing Vulnerability to Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(1), pages 59-74, March.
    38. Tindara Addabbo & Massimo Baldini, 2000. "Poverty dynamics and social transfers in Italy in the early 1990s," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3/4), pages 291-321, May.
    39. Nelson, Julie A, 1993. "Household Equivalence Scales: Theory versus Policy?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(3), pages 471-493, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chenhong Peng & Paul Yip, 2023. "Access to Neighbourhood Services and Subjective Poverty in Hong Kong," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 1015-1035, April.
    2. Liaqat Ali & Muhammad Kamran Naqi Khan & Habib Ahmad, 2020. "Education of the Head and Financial Vulnerability of Households: Evidence from a Household’s Survey Data in Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 439-463, January.
    3. Zanin, Luca, 2018. "Private monetary transfers between households: Who is helped and by whom?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 76-82.
    4. Netta Achdut & Tehila Refaeli & Talia Meital Schwartz Tayri, 2021. "Subjective Poverty, Material Deprivation Indices and Psychological Distress Among Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Social Capital and Usage of Online Social Networks," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 863-887, December.
    5. Chang, Qingsong & Peng, Chenhong & Guo, Yingqi & Cai, Ziyi & Yip, Paul S.F., 2020. "Mechanisms connecting objective and subjective poverty to mental health: Serial mediation roles of negative life events and social support," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    6. Chiara Mussida & Luca Zanin, 2020. "Determinants of the Choice of Job Search Channels by the Unemployed Using a Multivariate Probit Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 369-420, November.
    7. Chenhong Peng & Paul S. F. Yip & Yik Wa Law, 2020. "What Factors Beyond Economic Poverty Lead People in High-income Societies to Feel Poor? Evidence from Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 991-1027, December.
    8. Chenhong Peng, 2023. "Household Consumption and the Discrepancy Between Economic and Subjective Poverty: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Social Status and Social Connectedness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1703-1727, June.
    9. Chenhong Peng & Yik-Wa Law, 2023. "How Do Consumption Patterns Influence the Discrepancy Between Economic and Subjective Poverty?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1579-1604, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luca Zanin & Rosalba Radice & Giampiero Marra, 2013. "Estimating the Effect of Perceived Risk of Crime on Social Trust in the Presence of Endogeneity Bias," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 523-547, November.
    2. Luca Zanin, 2017. "The effects of various motives to save money on the propensity of Italian households to allocate an unexpected inheritance towards consumption," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1755-1775, July.
    3. Rosalba Radice & Luca Zanin & Giampiero Marra, 2013. "On the effect of obesity on employment in the presence of observed and unobserved confounding," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 67(4), pages 436-455, November.
    4. Borghans, Lex & Golsteyn, Bart H.H., 2005. "Time Discounting and the Body Mass Index," IZA Discussion Papers 1597, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Teklewold, Hailemariam, 2011. "Farming or burning? shadow prices and farmer’s impatience on the allocation of multi-purpose resource in the mixed farming system of Ethiopia," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 116080, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Kartik Athreya & José Mustre-del-Río & Juan M Sánchez, 2019. "The Persistence of Financial Distress," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(10), pages 3851-3883.
    7. Boyd H. Hunter & Steven Kennedy & Nicholas Biddle, 2004. "Indigenous and Other Australian Poverty: Revisiting the Importance of Equivalence Scales," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(251), pages 411-422, December.
    8. Bellemare, C. & Melenberg, B. & van Soest, A.H.O., 2002. "Semi-parametric Models for Satisfaction with Income," Discussion Paper 2002-87, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    9. Jorra, Markus, 2012. "The effect of IMF lending on the probability of sovereign debt crises," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 709-725.
    10. Piotr Bialowolski & Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, 2014. "The Index of Household Financial Condition, Combining Subjective and Objective Indicators: An Appraisal of Italian Households," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 365-385, August.
    11. Borghans, Lex & Golsteyn, Bart H.H., 2006. "Time discounting and the body mass index: Evidence from the Netherlands," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 39-61, January.
    12. Regan, Mark & Kakoulidou, Theano, 2022. "How important are the unit of analysis and equivalence scales when measuring income poverty and inequality? Evidence from Ireland," Papers WP721, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    13. Preuss, Malte, 2021. "Intra-individual stability of two survey measures on forward-looking attitude," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 201-227.
    14. Liam Delaney & Michael Daly & Colm Harmon, 2008. "Psychological and biological foundations of time preference : evidence from a day reconstruction study with biological tracking," Open Access publications 200819, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    15. Melanie Lührmann & Marta Serra-Garcia & Joachim Winter, 2018. "The Impact of Financial Education on Adolescents' Intertemporal Choices," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 309-332, August.
    16. Giampiero Marra & Rosalba Radice & Silvia Missiroli, 2014. "Testing the hypothesis of absence of unobserved confounding in semiparametric bivariate probit models," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 715-741, June.
    17. Luc Arrondel & Nicolas Frémeaux, 2016. "‘For Richer, For Poorer’: Assortative Mating and Savings Preferences," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(331), pages 518-543, July.
    18. Hillringhaus, Tilman & Peichl, Andreas, 2010. "Die Messung von Armut unter Berücksichtigung regional divergierender Lebenshaltungskosten und öffentlicher Leistungen," IZA Discussion Papers 5344, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Atte Oksanen & Mikko Aaltonen & Kati Rantala, 2015. "Social Determinants of Debt Problems in a Nordic Welfare State: a Finnish Register-Based Study," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 229-246, September.
    20. Delaney, Liam & Doyle, Orla, 2012. "Socioeconomic differences in early childhood time preferences," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 237-247.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bivariate probit model; Household’s economic inadequacy; Endogeneity; Predicted joint probability; Survey of household income and wealth; Spatial economic inadequacy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C3 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables
    • C36 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:128:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1019-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.