Abstract
The growth of the elderly population and changes in household composition raise important questions regarding the level of well-being of the elderly in developing countries. Traditional analyses of poverty often ignore the question of intra-household distribution of resources. This paper is the first to apply a collective consumption model to analyze the level of well-being of the elderly in Brazil. Our results indicate that living in a couple is associated with considerable economies of scale and that wive’s shares are increasing as total expenditures increase. We find that, in Brazil, elderly women experience a considerable decrease in material well-being when living alone, compared to elderly men. Finally, we conclude that disregarding the intra-household distribution of resources results in both underestimates and overestimates poverty among the elderly in Brazil.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 925-951 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Social Indicators Research |
Volume | 163 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | Apr 24 2022 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2022 |
Keywords
- Brazil
- Collective consumption
- Elderly poverty
- Intra-household allocation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Sociology and Political Science
- General Social Sciences