THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE ELDERLY: BEWARE OF THE MEAN*
THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE ELDERLY: BEWARE OF THE MEAN*
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长者的经济状况：谨防中庸*
DOI：
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发表时间：
1987
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Quinn
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Quinn
目前的讨论包含了关于美国老年人经济地位的广泛矛盾的陈述。人们可以看到，老年人的贫困已经消除，这仍然是该国今天面临的最严重问题之一。本文讨论了衡量经济地位的不同方法，并试图说明作者如何得出如此不同的结论，并用现成的数据来支持它们。美国人口普查局关于个人收入的数据通常不包括实物福利，并以简单但不复杂的方式对待家庭规模。本文表明，这些问题的替代治疗可以对老年人的经济状况指数产生显着影响。收入的定义中是否包括实物福利，包括哪些实物福利以及如何对其进行估值，这些都极大地改变了结论。更重要的是，收入数据是按家庭还是按人均（或使用等值表加上某种中间除数）列出，因为老年家庭是所有年龄类别中最小的。本文提出三点。一个是，在过去几十年中，老年人的经济状况有了很大的改善，尽管改善的程度还有待讨论。但第二个是，关于老年人的汇总统计数据，如上文所述，可能掩盖的比它们揭示的更多。老年人的多样性是关键。小心你的意思。最后，没有一种正确的方法来衡量幸福。可以选择不同的方法并证明其合理性，所做的选择会大大改变结论。
Current discussion contains widely contradictory statements about the economic status of the elderly in the United States. One can read that poverty among the elderly has been eliminated, and that it remains one of the most serious problems facing the country today. This paper discusses different ways of measuring economic status, and attempts to show how authors can reach such divergent conclusions, and support them with readily available data. The U.S. Census data on personal income generally exclude in‐kind benefits, and treat family size in a straightforward though unsophisticated manner. This paper shows that alternative treatments of these issues can have significant effects on indices of the economic status of the elderly. Whether or not in‐kind benefits are included in the definition of income, which in‐kind benefits are included and how they are valued change the conclusions dramatically. Even more important is whether the income data are presented by household or per capita (or with some intermediate divisor, using equivalency scales), since elderly households are the smallest of any age category. This paper makes 3 points. One is that there has been significant progress in the economic status of the elderly over the past several decades, although the extent of the improvement is subject to debate. But the second is that summary statistics about the elderly, such as the above, may conceal more than they reveal. The diversity of the elderly is key. Beware of the mean. Finally, there is no one correct way to measure well‐being. Different methodological approaches can be chosen and justified, and the choices made alter the conclusions significantly.