Using subjective equivalence scales to analyze poverty in Poland

The subjective equivalence scale for Poland in 2010 is estimated using the Polish Household Budget Survey. The scale increases consistently with household size, thus showing larger economies of scale than would be shown if the OECD approach was used. We compare the poverty rates based on the subjective scale with those obtained using expert approach. The overall poverty rates are not much different, but the choice of weighting methods leads to a significantly different distribution of poverty when different types of households are considered. In particular, according to the subjective approach, the one-person households are mostly at risk of financial poverty. This is opposite to the OECD approach, according to which larger households are more at risk. The results are consistent with those for the euro zone countries discussed in Bishop et al. (2014).