Estimating local basic standard of living, Impact on overall poverty and inequality measures
Clément Carbonnier  1, 2@  
1 : Théorie économique, modélisation et applications  (THEMA)  -  Website
CNRS : UMR8184, Université de Cergy Pontoise
33, boulevard du Port 95011 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex -  France
2 : Sciences Po, LIEPP  -  Website
Sciences Po
286 boulevard Saint Germain 75007 Paris -  France

The aim of the present paper is to use subjective data on local needs to assess the local basic standard of living and to exploit the results in order to precise inequality measures and to get more accurate measure of the distribution of poverty throughout a heterogeneous territory. The European SILC-EU survey on households living provides location of households, their actual income and their answer to the question of the necessary income to make ends meet. A fixed point method crossing these two income definitions allows to estimate the local basic standard of living. It appears that overall inequality measures are not affected but that ordering of households in terms of standard of living is strongly impacted. Globally, the correction increases the mean standard of living in rural and small and small urban units (except in Parisian region and Mediterranean coast) and increases it in large urban units. These results raise the issue of local adaptation of assistance policies: if PPP of euros differ across the territory, the values of thresholds to be eligible to mean-tested redistribution policies vary locally in real terms.


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