Correction to: An Iterative Approach to Stratification: Poverty at Regional Level in Italy

n/

The orness value for rank-dependent welfare functions and rank-dependent poverty measures

We propose two distribution-sensitivity criteria to classify the rank-dependent welfare functions. These criteria compare the reaction of the welfare function to lossy transfers and lossy equalization transfers among individuals. We see that these classifications in terms of their distribution-sensitivity to these transfers can be established focusing only on the weights assigned to each welfare function. We also propose a criterion to sort the rank-dependent welfare functions and the rank-dependent poverty measures in terms of a mathematical value called orness. We provide a classification in terms of the orness value for the welfare functions of the S-Gini family, the Bonferroni index and the De Vergottini index. Another classification is provided for the poverty measures of the Poverty Gap Ratio, the Sen indices, the Thon index and the Thon family of indices, the Kakwani family of indices and the S-Gini family of indices. Finally, we prove that the orness classification for welfare functions and the orness classification for poverty measures can be interpreted as a distribution-sensitive classification since they have a direct link with the classifications proposed above. Moreover, we see that for a subset of welfare functions and another subset of poverty measures, the orness classification and the distribution-sensitivity classification based on lossy transfers and lossy equalization transfers are equivalent

Decompositions for the Kakwani poverty index

none2sinoneOihana Aristondo; Mariateresa CiommiAristondo, Oihana; Ciommi, Mariateres

Aggregating Composite Indicators through the Geometric Mean: A Penalization Approach

In this paper, we introduce a penalized version of the geometric mean. In analogy with the Mazziotta Pareto Index, this composite indicator is derived as a product between the geometric mean and a penalization term to account for the unbalance among indicators. The unbalance is measured in terms of the (horizontal) variability of the normalized indicators opportunely scaled and transformed via the Box–Cox function of order zero. The penalized geometric mean is used to compute the penalized Human Development Index (HDI), and a comparison with the geometric mean approach is presented. Data come from the Human Development Data Center for 2019 and refer to the classical three dimensions of HDI. The results show that the new method does not upset the original ranking produced by the HDI but it impacts more on countries with poor performances. The paper has the merit of proposing a new reading of the Mazziotta Pareto Index in terms of the reliability of the arithmetic mean as well as of generalizing this reading to the geometric mean approach

The decompositions of rank-dependent poverty measures using ordered weighted averaging operators

This paper is concerned with rank-dependent poverty measures and shows that an ordered weighted averaging, hereafter OWA, operator underlies in the definition of these indices. The dual decomposition of an OWA operator into the self-dual core and the anti-self-dual remainder allows us to propose a decomposition for all the rank-dependent poverty measures in terms of incidence, intensity and inequality. In fact, in the poverty field, it is well known that every poverty index should be sensitive to the incidence of poverty, the intensity of poverty and the inequality among the poor individuals. However, the inequality among the poor can be analyzed in terms of either incomes or gaps of the distribution of the poor. And, depending on the side we focus on, contradictory results can be obtained. Nevertheless, the properties inherited by the proposed decompositions from the OWA operators oblige the inequality components to measure equally the inequality of income and inequality of gap overcoming one of the main drawbacks in poverty and inequality measurement. Finally, we provide an empirical illustration showing the appeal of our decompositions for some European Countries in 2005 and 2011

Equitable and sustainable well-being in Italian municipalities: Do women in politics make the difference?

This paper investigates whether the gender of elected politicians affects the performance of Italian local governments in providing equitable and sustainable well-being to citizens. In fact, Italy was the first country in the European Union to include citizens’ well-being objectives in economic planning. We use data on more than 6000 Italian municipalities for two years to investigate the relationship between gender representation at three bodies of local government with measures of socio-economic and environmental sustainability and find that larger representation of women in municipal leadership, executive and council bodies is significantly associated with improved municipal well-being. These results are also confirmed by accounting for endogenous issues, by adopting an extended definition of well-being and other robustness checks. Differences among northern and southern regions emerge with regard to the effects of incumbent female politicians. Other heterogeneous impacts are unclear or less marked

Impact of COVID-19 on elderly population well-being: evidence from European countries

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of COVID-19 on multidimensional well-being in the European population aged 50 and over by measuring changes in individual well-being before and after the pandemic outbreak. To capture the multidimensional nature of well-being, we consider different dimensions: economic well-being, health status, social connections and work status. We introduce new indices of change in individual well-being that measure non-directional, downward and upward movements. Individual indices are then aggregated by country and subgroup for comparison. The properties satisfied by the indices are also discussed. The empirical application is based on micro-data from waves 8 and 9 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), carried out for 24 European countries before the pandemic outbreak (regular survey) and in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (June–August 2020 and June–August 2021). The findings suggest that employed and richer individuals suffered greater losses in well-being, while differences based on gender and education diverge from country to country. It also emerges that while the main driver of well-being changes in the first year of the pandemic was economics, the health dimension also strongly contributed to upward and downward well-being changes in the second year

European Funds and Regional Convergence: From the European Context to the Italian Scenario

The inclusive economic growth and the territorial cohesion represent the central points of the EU agenda. The regional funds are the main European Regional Policy aimed to increase the employment levels in the Union and to reduce the territorial divides between the backward and forward regions. This work aims to verify the effectiveness of 2007–2013 EU funding by means of the Difference-in-Differences regression on official data referring to European NUTS-2 regions. The aim is twofold. First, we verify whether the regional funds narrowed employment disparities in the European context. Second, we focus on Italy as one of the largest beneficiary countries of funds. The results suggest a general ineffectiveness of funds across the European countries and an even worst scenario in Italy. The quality of institutions, the fund management by the national and regional governments and the monitoring activities are the main causes of failure of regional policies in Italy