Most equivalence scales that are applied in research on inequality do not depend on income, even though there is strong empirical evidence that equivalence scales are actually income-dependent. This paper explores the consistency of results derived from income-independent and income-dependent scales. We show that applying income-independent scales when income-dependent scales would be appropriate leads to violations of the transfer principle. Surprisingly, there are some exceptions, but these require unrealistic and strong assumptions. Thus, the use of income-dependent equivalence scales almost always leads to different assessments of inequality than the use of income-independent equivalence scales. Two examples illustrate our findings.

中文翻译：

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收入（当量）依赖性等价量表和不平等度量

尽管有很强的经验证据表明，当量表实际上是与收入相关的，但大多数用于不平等研究的当量表并不依赖于收入。本文探讨了收入无关和收入依赖量表得出的结果的一致性。我们表明，当收入依赖的量表适用时，应用收入无关的量表会导致违反转移原则。令人惊讶的是，有一些例外，但是这些例外需要不切实际和强有力的假设。因此，与使用收入无关的当量表相比，使用收入依赖的当量表几乎总是导致对不平等的评估不同。有两个例子说明了我们的发现。