Adult equivalence scales: a life-cycle perspective

<p>In any policy-orientated study of family welfare, it is inevitable that some comparison of welfare between households with different compositions will be required, and the theory of (adult) equivalence scales aims to formalise the way in which these comparisons may be made. An adult equivalence scale is defined as the proportionate increase in income per adult necessary to maintain a certain level of household living standard given some change in demographic circumstances (typically, the introduction of children). Values for such scales might be obtained in any of a number of ways. It is clear, for instance, that any national social security system can be interpreted as embodying one such set of scales; in the UK this is given by those reported in Table 1. </p>