Of Deprivation and Well-being: Essays in Applied Economics

This dissertation comprises four chapters in applied economics, addressing various dimensions of deprivation and well-being. The first chapter contributes to the identification of individuals experiencing poverty. Using a novel statistical approach called the double-fuzzy model, applied to the Tunisian National Survey on Household Budget, Consumption, and Standard of Living (2015), this study expands the existing literature on multidimensional poverty measurement. The second chapter investigates the distribution of resources and deprivations in families. By employing Cragg's double-hurdle model on the time-use module of the Tanzanian Integrated Labor Force Survey (2006), the study explores gender differences in children's time use in Sub-Saharan Africa, shedding light on family resource allocation beyond monetary aspects. The third chapter focuses on the impact of non-physical deprivations on well-being, with a particular emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing policies. Using the Group-Based Trajectory Modelling approach on data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2020-2021), the study examines the relationship between loneliness, job insecurity, and mental health trajectories in the UK population. It contributes to the field of health and positive economics, particularly in the domain of mental health. Lastly, the fourth chapter takes a macroeconomic perspective, exploring the long-term relationship between economic growth and income inequality in a developing country. By conducting a cointegration analysis of Indonesian data on GDP and the Gini index, along with a descriptive analysis of the country's political and economic history, the study aims to enrich the knowledge of the Indonesian economy and its implications for individuals' experiences.