Statistical and measurement issues in assessing the welfare status of aged individuals and populations

• Published in: Journal of econometrics Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 151 - 181
• Main Authors: Manton, Kenneth G., Woodbury, Max A., Stallard, Eric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.1991; Elsevier; North-Holland Pub. Co; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Series: Journal of Econometrics
• Subjects: Aged; Applications; Comparative studies; Demographics; Economic models; Economic theory; Economics; Exact sciences and technology; Income; Individuals; Mathematics; Older people; People with disabilities; Population; Probability and statistics; Quality of life; Sciences and techniques of general use; Statistical analysis; Statistics; Utility functions; Welfare economics; United States > US; Cognitive theory; Multidimensional analysis; Demography; Welfare; Stochastic process; EM algorithm; Poisson process
• ISSN: 0304-4076; 1872-6895
• DOI: 10.1016/0304-4076(91)90094-T

Univariate [Blackorby and Donaldson (1978), Bourguignon (1979), Shorrocks (1980, 1984), Foster (1983)] and multidimensional [Kolm (1973, 1977), Atkinson and Bourguignon (1982), Ram (1982), Massoumi (1986, 1989)] measures of social welfare and economic inequality have been proposed. We consider statistical and measurement issues in empirically evaluating individual and population welfare using a procedure producing ‘fuzzy’ state descriptions which exhibit properties proposed for social welfare functions. We discuss the model's properties and its use in estimating the parameters of a multidimensional welfare process. Analyses of the U.S. elderly disabled population are presented - a group with high service needs important for federal health policy.