A Structural Equation Modeling With Welfare Indicators: Examining the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status, Access to Services and Material Deprivation

Abstract

This study aims to develop a comprehensive model with welfare determinants and analyze the effects of wealth on access to services and material deprivation. The pooled cross-sectional dataset of the Household Budget Survey of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) covering the period 2015-2019 is used in the analysis. Structural Equation Modelling is preferred to simultaneously examine interrelated variables such as wealth, material deprivation and access to services and to investigate the relationship between latent variables. The findings show that wealth increases households' access to services and decreases material deprivation of households. Moreover, as households' access to services increases, their material deprivation decreases.