Regional welfare weights for the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Evans D., Kula E. and Sezer H. (2005) Regional welfare weights for the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Regional Studies 39 , 923-937. In relation to public spending and regional policy, the importance of distributional issues is stressed, and regional welfare weights are derived f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Regional studies 2005-10, Vol.39 (7), p.923-937
Main Authors: Evans, D., Kula, E., Sezer, H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bgi / Prodig
Comparative studies
D61
Empirical tests
Europe
Grenznutzung
Human geography
Income distribution
Income elasticity
Income taxes
Indices de bienestar social
JEL classifications: D60
JEL classifications: D60, D61, R10
Marginal de los ingresos
Marginal utility
National income
Ponderations relatives a la protection sociale
Pondérations relatives à la protection sociale
Public expenditure
Public finance
Public policy
R10
Regional studies
Reino Unido
Royaume-Uni
Social impact
The British Isles
United Kingdom
Utlilite marginale
Utlilité marginale
Welfare
Welfare weights
Wohlfahrtslasten
Índices de bienestar social
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Summary:Evans D., Kula E. and Sezer H. (2005) Regional welfare weights for the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Regional Studies 39 , 923-937. In relation to public spending and regional policy, the importance of distributional issues is stressed, and regional welfare weights are derived from an appropriate underlying social welfare function. Estimates of these weights are then provided for the four countries comprising the UK. Welfare weights now have a very high policy profile following the special emphasis placed by the UK Treasury, in its recently revised guidance on appraisal and evaluation in government, on the assessment of the distributional impacts of social projects and policies. From an empirical perspective, the critical component of each welfare weight measure is the elasticity of marginal utility of income ( e ). Alternative estimation approaches based on demand analysis and income tax data are used to determine e , and a preferred measure of 1.60 emerges. The resulting regional welfare weights are then compared with recent patterns of per-capita regional public expenditure in the UK. The paper concludes by emphasizing the scope for further empirical work on welfare weights and regional policy in relation to both the UK and the European Union.
ISSN:0034-3404
1360-0591
DOI:10.1080/00343400500289937