Disposable personal income
Disposable personal income (or so called DPI) - sum of the income the individual has, after adding all income from different sources, such as wages, mixed income, net property income, social benefits and other potential incomes that the individual may get, and deducting taxes from it. In other words, amount of money that the person gets after payment of all income taxes needed (Ruser, 2004). Other names that can be called for this type of income are disposable earnings as well as after-income tax.
In national accounts equation would look like following way: Personal Income – Personal Current Taxes = Disposable Personal Income
When it comes to the deductions in the form of taxes it implies : social security, medical insurance as well as other obligatory fees that the individual pays for the government as part of the suppress for instance for retirement system.
If we take a look at this definition from the macro level, we need to mention that this indicator is paid very much attention, as it is a way to evaluate the state of the economy in general. Disposable personal income can be also considered as one of the determinants for demand and spending. The amount of this particular type of income of an individual or group of individuals can help economists to understand how much money the consumer can spend and save. For instance, to understand, how previous statement looks like in real life we can use the example of the situation in USA previous years. In the 2019 and 2020 years, when the biggest economies faced crisis (which implied US economy as well), which is related to the COVID pandemic. The pandemic had big influence on the DPI, but in the 2021 the indicators rose $214.3 billion (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2021).
Also economists use this notion as one of the points to use for further calculations: discretionary income, personal savings rates, marginal propensity to save and marginal propensity to consume.
Discretionary Income
This notion is often being confused with the disposable income. Although these terms are interconnected, they have different meanings. Discretionary income is the amount of money, that the individual has after all mandatory payments are done (for instance, rent or mortgage, transport, electricity). From the economic, as if was mentioned about disposable income is tracking more on the macro level, while discretionary on the micro. The amount of money, which is considered as discretionary income can be spend at will. Also, this type of income is the one, which “suffers” the most after the decrease in salary or loss of the job.
The formula for discretionary income will be following: Disposable Personal Income - Cost of All Necessary Expenses
References
- Bureau of Economic Analysis. U.S. Economy at a Glance. (2021)
- Goldberg, S. The Concept of Disposable Income: A Reply. "Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science" (1949)
- OECD , Disposable income in National Accounts at a Glance 2014, "OECD Publishing". (2014)
- Ruser, John; Pilot, Adrienne; Nelson, Charles Alternative Measures of Household Income (2004)
- Ruser, John; Pilot, Adrienne; Nelson, Charles. Alternative Measures of Household Income: BEA Personal Income, CPS Money Income, and Beyond
- United Nations: System of National Accounts (SNA). (2009)
Author: Kseniia Zalyvadna
