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Abstract
This article estimates expenditure-dependent equivalence scales for Italian couples with and without children. Following Donaldson and Pendakur (2006), the generalised absolute equivalence-scale exactness (GAESE) restrictions are incorporated into a translated quadratic almost ideal demand system. We obtain declining-with-expenditure equivalence scales, a pattern that tends to strengthen when the number of children increases. Thus, scale economies in current consumption are lower for families with poor expenditure capacities. We also show that families living in the South bear a substantial additional cost to achieve the same well-being of those living in the North. Finally, we find that ignoring the declining with expenditure pattern may involve a relevant understatement of measured inequality.

AbstractThis paper estimates dynamic demand models for tobacco consumption in Italy from 1871 to 2010. The empirical analysis is based on an entirely new dataset. Because the tobacco sector was mostly managed by the state, rich and detailed historical documentation is available. Price elasticities are estimated both for aggregate tobacco consumption and its four major components (cigars, cigarettes, cut tobacco, and snuff) for three separate sub‐periods: 1871–1913, 1919–1939, and 1946–2010. Elasticities consistently belong to a narrow set. We discuss the public policy implications of a seemingly iso‐elastic tobacco demand function.

In this paper we study the ability of the 19th century Italian government to choose profit maximizing prices for a multiproduct monopolist. We use very detailed historical data on the tobacco consumption in 62 Italian provinces from 1871 to 1888 to estimate a differentiated product demand system. The demand conditions and the legal environment of the period made this market as close to a textbook monopoly as is practically possible. The government's stated aim for this industry was profit maximisation: since at the time profits from tobacco were close to 10% of the revenues for the cash-strapped government, the stated aim was very likely the true one. Our empirical application uses historical price and cost data and suggests that the government was not wide off the mark: the tobacco prices were 'not far' from those dictated by the multiproduct monopoly formulae for profit maximisation with interdependent demand functions.