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How Should One Measure Economic Insecurity?

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  • Lars Osberg

    (Dalhousie University)

Abstract

People feel economically insecure when they perceive a significant hazard or danger looming in the future, which they are unable to insure against, avoid or ignore. While all OECD countries devote significant resources to mitigate economic insecurity, no consensus exists on the best way to measure it. The paper reviews the pros and cons of the main approaches proposed by the literature and identifies a number of criteria than an ideal measure of economic insecurity should satisfy. It advocates the construction of household level sub-indices for the hazards identified in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (i.e. unemployment, illness, widowhood, disability and old age) and their aggregation to an over-all summary measure of economic insecurity, discussing what could be done with existing data and what additional information should be collected.

Suggested Citation

  • Lars Osberg, 2015. "How Should One Measure Economic Insecurity?," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2015/1, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:stdaaa:2015/1-en
    DOI: 10.1787/5js4t78q9lq7-en
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    Cited by:

    1. Walter Bossert & Andrew E. Clark & Conchita d'Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2019. "Economic Insecurity and the Rise of the Right," PSE Working Papers halshs-02325984, HAL.
    2. Tetiana L Mostenska & Tetiana G Mostenska & Eduard Yurii & Zoltán Lakner & László Vasa, 2022. "Economic affordability of food as a component of the economic security of Ukraine," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2016. "Economic insecurity and variations in resources," Working Papers 422, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    4. Alessandro Gallo & Silvia Pacei, 2020. "Economic Insecurity in the Italian Macro-Regions," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(8), pages 1-65, August.
    5. Marina Romaguera de la Cruz, 2017. "Economic insecurity in Spain: A multidimensional analysis," Working Papers 448, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Paul Fiedler, 2021. "Worrying about Work? Disentangling the Relationship between Economic Insecurity and Mental Health," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1145, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. Barry Watson & Stephen Law & Lars Osberg, 2022. "Are Populists Insecure About Themselves or About Their Country? Political Attitudes and Economic Perceptions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 667-705, January.
    8. Watson, Barry & Osberg, Lars, 2019. "Can positive income anticipations reverse the mental health impacts of negative income anxieties?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 107-122.
    9. Nancy Kong & Lars Osberg & Weina Zhou, 2018. "The Shattered “Iron Rice Bowl”— Intergenerational Effects of Economic Insecurity During Chinese State- Owned Enterprise Reform," Working Papers daleconwp2018-01, Dalhousie University, Department of Economics.
    10. Marina Romaguera‐de‐la‐Cruz, 2020. "Measuring Economic Insecurity Using a Counting Approach. An Application to Three EU Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 558-583, September.
    11. Staudigel, Matthias, 2015. "A soft pillow for hard times: Effects of economic insecurity on body weight in transitional Russia," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205189, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Robertas Vaitkus & Asta Vasiliauskaitė, 2022. "An Assessment of the Impact of Legal Regulation on Financial Security in OECD Countries," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-19, February.
    13. Costanzo Ranci & Jason Beckfield & Laura Bernardi & Andrea Parma, 2021. "New Measures of Economic Insecurity Reveal its Expansion Into EU Middle Classes and Welfare States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 539-562, December.
    14. Olga Cantó & Carmelo García-Pérez & Marina Romaguera de la Cruz, 2021. "Multidimensional Measures of Economic Insecurity in Spain: The Role of Aggregation and Weighting Methods," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 238(3), pages 29-60, September.

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