Approaching expenditure poverty in the UK in a new way

Abstract

Previous empirical literature has found that expenditure poverty rates among retired households are higher than those among non-retired households. Our analysis suggests that this finding is misleading as it is generally based on expenditure poverty measures that do not take into account differences in expenditure patterns between retired and non-retired population. We argue that expenditure measures that consider the difference in expenditure basket of these two population groups are more relevant and informative than standard expenditure measures. More specifically, we propose a measure of expenditure poverty which excludes housing and work-related costs, as these are typically much higher among non-retired households. We add an extra dimension to our analysis by briefly considering the relationship between income/expenditure and well-being.

Date of Award	24 Jun 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Sarah L Smith (Supervisor) & Edmund Cannon (Supervisor)