IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sochwe/v62y2024i3d10.1007_s00355-024-01507-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relative measures of economic insecurity

Author

Listed:
  • Walter Bossert

    (University of Montreal)

  • Conchita D’Ambrosio

    (University of Luxembourg)

Abstract

We characterize a new class of individual measures of economic insecurity in a setting where there is a single relevant variable that can be interpreted as income or consumption. Insecurity is intended to capture the difficulties faced by an economic agent when confronted with adverse events. We work with an intertemporal model and base our measures on the changes in the variable when moving from one period to the next. Our approach is axiomatic and differs from the existing literature in two respects. First, we adopt a relative (scale-invariant) concept of insecurity and, second, we restrict attention to a relatively small set of requirements that we consider plausible and intuitively appealing. As a result, we identify a large class of measures that can be thought of as providing a tool box to empirical researchers who can select those members of our class that they consider suitable for the application in question. In addition, we present a dominance criterion based on our new insecurity measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Bossert & Conchita D’Ambrosio, 2024. "Relative measures of economic insecurity," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 62(3), pages 571-581, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:62:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s00355-024-01507-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-024-01507-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00355-024-01507-4
    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/s00355-024-01507-4?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. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2013. "Measuring Economic Insecurity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54, pages 1017-1030, August.
    2. Catalano, R., 1991. "The health effects of economic insecurity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 81(9), pages 1148-1152.
    3. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2013. "Measuring Economic Insecurity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(3), pages 1017-1030, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Conchita D'Ambrosio & Nicholas Rohde, 2014. "The Distribution of Economic Insecurity: Italy and the U.S. over the Great Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 33-52, May.
    2. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, Kam Ki & D’Ambrosio, Conchita & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2020. "Welfare-based income insecurity in the us and germany: evidence from harmonized panel data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 226-243.
    3. Francesca Modena & Concetta Rondinelli & Fabio Sabatini, 2014. "Economic Insecurity and Fertility Intentions: The Case of Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 233-255, May.
    4. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2014. "Measuring Economic Insecurity in Rich and Poor Nations," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 53-76, May.
    5. Markus Jäntti & Ravi Kanbur & Milla Nyyssölä & Jukka Pirttilä, 2014. "Poverty and Welfare Measurement on the Basis of Prospect Theory," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 182-205, March.
    6. MORENO-TERNERO, Juan & OSTERDAL, Lars P., 2014. "Normative foundations for equity-sensitive population health evaluation functions," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014031, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    7. Walter Bossert & Andrew E Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2023. "Economic insecurity and political preferences," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(3), pages 802-825.
    8. Dmitry Petrov & Marina Romaguera-de-la-Cruz, 2025. "Measuring economic insecurity by combining income and wealth: an extended well-being approach," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 113-139, March.
    9. Hansen, Kristian S. & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Østerdal, Lars P., 2024. "Quality- and productivity-adjusted life years: From QALYs to PALYs and beyond," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Arpino, Bruno & LUPPI, FRANCESCA & Rosina, Alessandro, 2021. "Changes in fertility plans during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: the role of occupation and income vulnerability," SocArXiv 4sjvm, Center for Open Science.
    11. Cantó, Olga & García-Pérez, Carmelo & Romaguera-de-la-Cruz, Marina, 2020. "The dimension, nature and distribution of economic insecurity in European countries: A multidimensional approach," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    12. Piters, Raphaël, 2024. "Twenty Years of Work Ethic in Europe. A Multilevel Analysis of Modernization Theory on Work Ethic," OSF Preprints 4x9vy, Center for Open Science.
    13. Hansen, Kristian S. & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Østerdal, Lars P., 2023. "Productivity and quality-adjusted life years: QALYs, PALYs and beyond," Working Papers 11-2023, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    14. Marta E Barazzetta & Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’ambrosio, 2017. "Childhood Circumstances and Young Adulthood Outcomes: The Effects of Mothers' Financial Problems," PSE Working Papers halshs-01622334, HAL.
    15. Martínez, Ricardo & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D., 2022. "An axiomatic approach towards pandemic performance indicators," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    16. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Marta Barazzetta, 2021. "Childhood circumstances and young adulthood outcomes: The role of mothers' financial problems," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 342-357, February.
    17. Staudigel, Matthias, 2015. "A soft pillow for hard times: Effects of economic insecurity on body weight in transitional Russia," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205189, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Olga Cantó & Carmelo García-Pérez & Marina Romaguera de la Cruz, 2021. "Multidimensional Measures of Economic Insecurity in Spain: The Role of Aggregation and Weighting Methods," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 238(3), pages 29-60, September.
    19. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, K.K. & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2016. "The effect of economic insecurity on mental health: Recent evidence from Australian panel data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 250-258.
    20. Mariña Fernández Salgado & Francesco Figari & Holly Sutherland & Alberto Tumino, 2014. "Welfare Compensation for Unemployment in the Great Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 177-204, May.

    More about this item

    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:sochwe:v:62:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s00355-024-01507-4. 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.