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This study generates an integrated database to measure living standards in Italy using propensity score matching. We follow the recommendations of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress proposing that income, consumption of market goods and nonmarket activities, and wealth, rather than production, should be evaluated jointly in order to appropriately measure material welfare. Our integrated database is similar in design to the one built for the United States by the Levy Economics Institute to measure the multiple dimensions of well-being. In the United States, as is the case for Italy and most European countries, the state does not maintain a unified database to measure household economic well-being, and data sources about income and employment surveys and other surveys on wealth and the use of time have to be statistically matched. The measure of well-being is therefore the result of a multidimensional evaluation process no longer associated with a single indicator, as is usually the case when measuring gross domestic product. The estimation of individual and social welfare, multidimensional poverty and inequality does require an integrated living standard database where information about consumption, income, time use and subjective well-being are jointly available. With this objective in mind, we combine information available in four different surveys: the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey, the Household Budget Survey, the Time Use Survey, and the Household Conditions and Social Capital Survey. We perform three different statistical matching procedures to link the relevant dimensions of living standards contained in each survey and report both the statistical and economic tests carried out to evaluate the quality of the procedure at a high level of detail.

Social inclusion is a priority item of international policy agendas. However, little is known about households' preferences for policies aiming at social inclusion. We implement a household survey in both northern and southern Italy to investigate preferences for financing rehabilitation programs for juvenile offenders, a particularly vulnerable group exposed to social exclusion. We find that although societies can be equally socially inclusive, families' propensity towards "leaving no child behind” varies depending on the presence of children in the family, and household income. We also show that differences in preferences do not depend only on socio-demographic characteristics but also on the subjective concern about crime risk, the immigration rate as well as on altruistic motives. Our results guide the implementation of policies promoting social inclusion across regions.

Esta Tesis se estructura en tres capítulos que tienen como eje vertebral la literatura de los modelos colectivos de consumo. El Capítulo 1 deriva las restricciones necesarias para cumplir con la condición de agregación colectiva y presenta un marco conceptual general para modelar precios sombra individuales. El Capítulo 2 se propone abrir la "caja negra" de las familias argentinas, tal de identificar la distribución de recursos dentro del hogar entre adultos y niños, y explorar las implicancias sobre el bienestar infantil. El Capítulo 3 aborda un vínculo poco explorado en la literatura entre las transferencias monetarias y el comportamiento distributivo intra-hogar, que se basa en la premisa de que los beneficios otorgados a los padres alcanzarán a los niños dependiendo de las transferencias dentro del hogar. El trabajo realiza aportes tanto teóricos como empíricos a una literatura que, si bien acumula tres décadas de contribuciones, aún se encuentra en continuo crecimiento. Aún más, pese a la relevancia de la temática, la evidencia previa para Argentina era inexistente en tanto la evidencia para América Latina es muy escasa y se encuentra en su etapa más inicial., Fil: Echeverría, Lucía. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.