Material Deprivation in Europe: Which Expenditures are Curtailed First?

Joseph Deutsch, Anne Catherine Guio, Marco Pomati, Jacques Silber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper takes a close look at material deprivation in 27 European Union countries. Its main goal is to explore which expenditures individuals/households curtail first when facing economic difficulties. Two methodologies are applied: item response theory, a psychometric method also known as latent trait analysis, and the concept of deprivation sequence which is an extension of the notion of “order of acquisition of durable goods”. Both approaches show similar results when applied to EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions material deprivation data. Overall, the order of curtailment found in the data does not differ substantially between EU Member states. Looking at within country variations, our analysis shows that the order of curtailment of the country as a whole is very similar to that of the various population subgroups.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)723-740
Number of pages18
JournalSocial Indicators Research
Volume120
Issue number3
Early online dateFeb 2014
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2014

Keywords

  • Durable goods
  • EU-SILC
  • European Union
  • Item response theory
  • Material deprivation
  • Order of acquisition

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • General Social Sciences

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