Adequate income in Portugal: Acomparison of two estimation methods

Abstract

Income adequacy, considered as the sufficiency of disposable income to assure human dignity in a given society, is an old political issue. As stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), ‘everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family’ (emphasis added). In a market economy, where the satisfaction of material needs is very much dependent on consumption of goods and services obtained through the market, adequacy of living standard implies adequacy of disposable income to buy them.