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The living standard indicator in utilitarian social evaluation functions (USEF) is the ratio of a nominal living standard and a price index. We show that under weak association of price indices and nominal living standards and usual concavity conditions on utility functions, utilitarian social welfare increases with price index dispersion when the aggregate price level is superior to the arithmetic mean of price indices, and diminishes when it is inferior to the harmonic mean.

We present the asymptotic properties of double-stage quantile regression estimators with random regressors, where the first stage is based on quantile regressions with the same quantile as in the second stage, which ensures robustness of the estimation procedure. We derive invariance properties with respect to the reformulation of the dependent variable. We propose a consistent estimator of the variance–covariance matrix of the new estimator. Finally, we investigate finite sample properties of this estimator by using Monte Carlo simulations. Copyright Royal Economic Socciety 2004

It is crucial for social policy in Less Developed Countries to identify correlates of poverty at the household level. This has been done in the literature by estimating household poverty equations typically with Tobit and Probit models. However, when the errors in these equations are non-normal and heteroscedastic, which is usually expected, these models deliver biased estimates. Using quarterly data from Rwanda in 1983, we reject the normality and homoscedasticity assumptions for household chronic and transient latent poverty equations. We treat this problem by estimating censored quantile regressions. Our results of censored quantile regressions and of inconsistent Tobit regressions are substantially different. However, in the case of chronic poverty the signs of the apparently significant coefficients are generally in agreement, while for seasonal transient poverty different variables have significant effects for the two estimation methods. Our second contribution is to study, for the first time, correlates of poverty indicators based on quarterly consumptions. Our results show that in Rwanda different correlates are significant for chronic poverty and for transient seasonal poverty. The effects of the main inputs (land and labour) are more important for the chronic component of poverty than for the transient one. Household location and socio-demographic characteristics play important roles that are consistent with usual explanations of poverty in the literature. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.