Equivalent Income and the Well-Being Burden of Disease

Economic evaluation of health policy has to go beyond health to focus on a broader concept of individual well-being if it aims at contributing to the debate about the optimal size of the health budget while taking into account economic inequality. The definition of well-being for policy purposes is neither a psychological nor a metaphysical issue, but a normative one. Happiness or subjective satisfaction are not attractive for this purpose, and this chapter proposes an alternative, the so-called equivalent income measure. Equivalent income does respect individual considered opinions about what is a good life. The author shows that the concept can be made operational through an analysis of the well-being burden of disease in various European countries.

Measuring Well-Being

This chapter discusses the well-being measure: a key component of the social welfare function (SWF) framework. This measure, w(·), assigns well-being numbers to individuals in outcomes so as to reflect admissible well-being comparisons (of well-being levels and/or well-being differences). In order for the SWF framework to function, these admissible comparisons must include interpersonal as well as intrapersonal comparisons; the chapter explains why. It then shows how von Neumann/Morgenstern (vNM) utility functions can be used to construct an interpersonally comparable well-being measure that respects individual preferences. A different preference-based well-being measure, the equivalent-income measure, is also reviewed. Although the preference view of well-being is dominant in the SWF literature, w(·) may instead be based upon a non-preference view of well-being, such as an hedonic or objective-good account. The chapter concludes by considering why some economists have been skeptical about interpersonal comparisons.

Value Relevance of Disaggregated Information: An Examination of the Rate and Volume Analysis of Bank Net Interest Income

SYNOPSIS A potentially important form of financial information disaggregation is to segregate the change in an income measure into its underlying performance drivers. In this study, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the usefulness of such disaggregation to investors. We utilize the volume and rate analysis in banks' 10-K filings, in which banks disaggregate annual changes in net interest income into changes in the balances (“volume variance”) and changes in the rates (“rate variance”) of assets and liabilities. We document that volume and rate variances are associated with bank characteristics, including market power, funding sources, and credit risk. We find volume and rate variances are predictive of future net interest income and are positively associated with stock returns and prices, suggesting the disaggregated information is value relevant. Our study informs regulators and users by showing that disaggregated information along volume and rate dimensions has predictive and confirmatory value.

Poverty Profiles of Sylhet City Corporation: An MPI Approach

Does income measure of poverty explain it meticulously? To seek this answer we claim poverty is not a unidimensional phenomenon rather it adheres multidimensionality. Sen (2000) views poverty as the deprivation of certain basic capabilities, which varies from elementary physical nourishment to the community life. However, targeting slum dwellers, this article sought to advance multidimensional poverty measures in SCC (Sylhet City Corporation). The study adopts a mixed method approach to examine so. Finding shows that, there are some variations in the percentage of poor households. In terms of income and expenditure 60% households are identified as poor but in MPI number increases to 75%. Data from in-depth interview exhibits that respondents feel themselves as income poor. Some of them consider deprivation of education is the consequence of that income poverty. In addition, few respondents dimple that health problems and physical disabilities mingle their poverty experiences.

Income Measures in Cross-National Surveys: Problems and Solutions

Comparable household income measures are crucial for most social science analyses of cross-national public opinion survey data. However, income questions in many cross-national surveys suffer from comparability and interpretability limitations that have not been adequately addressed by the existing literature. In this article, we examine the income measure in one major survey, the World Values Survey (WVS), arguing that a variety of problems arise when drawing inferences—descriptive or causal, individual or aggregate—using the standard ten-category measure. We then propose and implement a number of corrections to these potential biases and present a series of diagnostics that confirm the importance of our proposed corrections. We conclude by documenting some of the same challenges in the income measures used in other cross-national surveys. The accompanying data set can be merged with the WVS to make better use of the income measure.

Should Canada Adopt One Official Measure of Poverty?

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not Canada should adopt one measure of poverty. Currently, some examples of poverty measures found in Canada include LICO (low income cut‐offs), MBM (market basket measure) and LIM (low income measure). A policy analysis framework will be taken in order to first define our challenge at hand and to propose recommendations to address our problem. Throughout this exercise, a global viewpoint will also be taken to assess the different measures of poverty around the world, including those used in European countries.

Including Estimates of the Future in Today's Financial Statements

This paper explains why the question is how, not if, today's financial statements should include estimates of the future. Including such estimates is not new, but their use is increasing. This increase results primarily because standard-setters believe asset and liability measures that reflect current economic conditions and up-to-date expectations of the future will result in more useful information for making economic decisions, which is the objective of financial reporting. This is why standard-setters seem focused on fair value accounting. How estimates of the future are incorporated in financial statements depends on the asset and liability measurement attribute, and on financial reporting definitions of assets and liabilities. The present definitions depend on identifying past transactions or events that give rise to expected inflows or outflows of economic benefits and, for inflows, control over the expected benefits. Thus, not all expected inflows or outflows of economic benefits are recognized. Disclosures in the notes can help users understand recognized estimates and can provide information about unrecognized estimates. Including more estimates of the future in today's financial statements would result in an income measure that differs from today's income, but such a measure arguably provides better information for making economic decisions.