Was Ireland better off in 1994 than in 1987?

Abstract

This paper examines the change in welfare in Ireland over the 1987- 1994 period by investigating whether Lorenz and Generalised Lorenz dominance can be observed for household expenditure data. It also calculates bootstrapped standard error measures for Lorenz and Generalised Lorenz curves and finds that the Generalised Lorenz curve for 1994 lies everywhere above that for 1987 thus indicating dominance. It also investigates whether welfare rose using more specific social welfare measures based on average expenditure and the Gini coefficient and finds a statistically significant rise in social welfare.