BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:St Catharine's Political Economy Seminar Series - "\;A Democra tic Measure of National Income' Martin Weale - Martin Weale DTSTART:20191016T170000Z DTEND:20191016T183000Z UID:TALK130342@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Philippa Millerchip DESCRIPTION:*Date:* Wednesday 16 October 2019 \n*Time:* 18:00 -19:30\n*Spe aker:* Martin Weale \n*Talk Title:*‘A Democratic Measure of National In come’\n*Location:* Ramsden Room\, St Catharine's College\n\n*Speaker*\nM artin Weale is Professor at King's College\, London. He joined King’s Co llege in 2016 after completing two three-year terms as a member of the Mon etary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. He had previously been the Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research from 19 95 to 2010. In 2011 Queen Mary\, University of London appointed him a part -time Professor of Economics - a position he held until 2016. \nUntil 1995 he was a lecturer in Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fello w of Clare College (B.A. 1977\, Sc.D. 2006). He was a member of the Statis tics Commission from 2000 to 2008 and of the Board for Actuarial Standards from 2006 to 2011. Weale was appointed CBE for his services to Economics in 1999 and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 2001. City University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2007.\n\n*Ta lk Overview:*\nNational income per capita is widely used as the basis for comparing living standards in different countries. But conventional measur es of national income growth are plutocratic. The growth in the incomes of people with initially high income had more influence on the aggregate tha n does the growth of the incomes of people with initially low income. Thi s paper argues the case for constructing a democratic measure of national income growth\, the growth rate of the geometric mean of income per househ old - one which gives equal weight to the growth experience of each househ old\, whether its initial income is high or low. \nTo do this means alloca ting the whole of national income to households\, and a method of doing th is is suggested. While the Living Conditions and Food Survey is the primar y source\, issues of under-reporting have to be addressed. This is done by means of stochastic imputation on the basis of covariates. In order to pr oduce a democratic measure of real income growth\, it is necessary to comp ute a democratic deflator - based on the average of each household's expen diture shares rather than shares in total consumption. Deflation of the ge ometric mean of each household's income by this deflator makes it possible to calculate a democratic measure of real income growth. As a result of d eclining household income inequality since the economic crisis this measur e of real income has grown slightly faster than the plutocratic measure si nce 2006.\n\nFor other Seminars see: https://www.politicaleconomy.group.ca m.ac.uk\n\nPlease contact the seminar organisers Philip Arestis (pa267@cam .ac.uk) and Michael Kitson m.kitson@jbs.cam.ac.uk) in the event of a query . LOCATION:The Ramsden Room\, St Catharine's College END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR