2003年4月

兒童與成人基本生活費用的差異
The Differences of the Minimum Living Costs between Adults and Children

研究論文 Article

王德睦, 何華欽, 呂朝賢
Te-mu Wang, Hua-chin Ho, Chao-hsien Leu

5-38

貧窮的界定通常是以家戶而非個人爲單位，因此對家戶不同年齡成員的需求設定往往影響貧窮門檻的高低，進而造成貧窮人口組成的差異。在臺灣的官定貧窮門檻中，歷年來政府皆將成人與小孩的需求設爲等同，亦不考慮家庭消費的規模經濟問題，以致於在貧窮人口組成的分配上，不利老人單身家戶。而將小孩與成人的需求設算一致， 有其學理上的缺陷存在。因此本文使用三種差異成本法，恩格爾法、羅伯斯法、等比例法，並依據各種設算計算兒童相對於成人基本生活費用（兒童成本）的比例，試圖解決兒童與成人基本生活費用差異的問題。瞭解兒童與成人基本生活費用差異不但有助於低收入人口的判斷，政府亦可依此設定與兒童相關福利支出的水準與額度。如：低收入兒童生活補助或兒童就養、就學津貼補助水準等等。這些設算亦有益於政府對整體兒童福利支出的估算。

本文發現用恩格爾法估算的數値明顯較高，用羅伯斯法估算的數値明顯較低，而等比例法數所估算的數値則介於最高與最低比例之間。若以FCSU預算作爲設定計算等比例法數値，則單親家戶的兒童成本比例應爲0.71 ，而雙親家戶的兒童成本比例應爲0.68。

Poverty is usually determined on the basis of household as the unit not by individual. For this reason, the different needs of the household members tend to affect the poverty threshold which further influences the composition of the poverty population. The official poverty threshold in Taiwan makes no distinction between the needs of an adult and a child, nor the differences between them in economies of scale of household consumptions. This method tends to shortchange single elderly households in its calculation of the distribution of poverty population composition. There exists a theoretical bias in treating the needs of adults as the same from children. In this research, we employ three different cost methods, those of Engel, Rothbarth, and Iso-Prop, in an attempt to resolve the problems in determining the minimum cost of living differences between adults and children and also to calculate the ratio of children cost to those of adults. A clear understanding of the differences of the minimum living costs between adults and children will not only make it easier to determine the low income population but will also be useful for government to set up the level and amount of welfare expenditure for children. For example, it can be used to estimate the living supply, child care, schooling allowance, etc., for the children in low income families. These calculating methods are also helpful to the government on the estimation of the welfare expenditure for children. The results of our analyses show that the parameters calculated by the Engel method tend to overestimate while those by the Rothbarth method tend to underestimate the values with the Iso-prop method falling somewhere in between the two. Finally, we found that using the Iso-prop method to calculate expenditure with the FCSU figures, the percentage of the cost of children in the household with one parent was 0.71, while with both parents present the same figure was 0.68.

基本生活費用, 兒童成本比例, 等比例法
the minimum living costs, the percentage of the cost of children, Iso-prop

經濟學, 社福社工
Economics, Social Welfare and Social Work

https://doi.org/10.7014/SR.2003040001

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