This paper is concerned with the empirical modeling of domestic demand for energy in the United Kingdom at the level of the individual household. A two-stage budgeting model of household demand for energy conditional on durable ownership is developed. At the first stage, income is allocated...

Recent discussion of convergence in the European Union has focused on macroeconomic indicators, in line with requirements for participation in the single currency. But it is reduction of disparities in living standards that is an ultimate goal of European integration--the greater "economic and...

Economic theory suggests that unemployment could affect human capital investment decisions in either direction. The authors use microdata on sixteen year-olds from the U.K. Family Expenditure Survey to examine the effects of household circumstances and regional unemployment rates on early school...

The exact measurement of the welfare costs of tax and price reform requires a detailed knowledge of individual preferences. Typically, first-order approximations of welfare costs are calculated avoiding detailed knowledge of substitution effects. The authors derive second-order approximations...

This paper studies the paths from inequality in earnings to inequality in household consumption. We show that careful study of the evolution of the variances and covariances of earnings and consumption within cohorts across time can identify permanent and transitory shocks. We present an...

This survey is designed to emphasize the relationship between empirical a nd theoretical considerations in the analysis of consumer behavior. A lthough it focuses primarily on analysis at the individual or micro l evel, it tries, where possible, to draw implications for the estimati on of...

Official estimates of housing benefit take-up rates suggest that up to two million families in the United Kingdom ma y not be receiving the help with their housing costs to which they ar e entitled. The authors' interest in the take-up of means tested bene fits is therefore motivated by two...