RELATIVE INEQUALITY AND POVERTY IN GERMANY AND THE UNITED-STATES USING ALTERNATIVE EQUIVALENCE SCALES

We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study to show the sensitivity o f measures of relative economic well-being of persons in the U.S. and Germany using official equivalence scales and consumption-based countr y-specific equivalence scales developed for the two countries. Overall inequality and poverty levels are found not to be sensitive to the eq uivalence scale used. However, the official German equivalence scale y ields quite different results from the others with respect to the rela tive income and poverty levels of vulnerable groups within the populat ion, especially older single people.