Measurement and identification of asset-poor households: a cross-national comparison of Spain and the United Kingdom
Fran Azpitarte
2134/36508
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Measurement_and_identification_of_asset-poor_households_a_cross-national_comparison_of_Spain_and_the_United_Kingdom/9473864
This paper is concerned with the analysis of the wealth dimension of poverty in developed
countries, which can hardly be measured by means of the information on household income. We
focus in identifying the group of households that lack enough wealth holdings to sustain them
during a period of economic crisis in order to quantify asset poverty, and its demographic weight,
in two industrialized countries with particularly different household demographics and saving
attitudes such as Spain and the United Kingdom. Our results show that the age profile of the
asset poor is remarkably similar in the two countries. In both it is individuals in households whose
head is under 45 years old who are more likely to be asset poor. However, some country-specific
differences also arise. For instance, the incidence of wealth poverty in the United Kingdom is
about twice that of Spain. Using counterfactual analysis we find that, although the different
household demographics clearly contribute importantly to this result, there remains a significant
part of the asset-poverty gap which is not explained by this relevant factor.
2019-01-08 15:53:30
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