The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being United States, 1989-2001

Edward Nathan Wolff () and Ajit Zacharias

Eastern Economic Journal, 2007, vol. 33, issue 4, pages 443-470

Abstract: The picture of economic well-being depends crucially on how it is measured. We introduce a new measure of economic well-being that includes public consumption, income from wealth, and household production. The differences in scope and method between our measure and standard income lead to substantially different findings regarding economic well-being. The average U.S. household appears to be much better off in 2001 relative to 1989 according to our measure in comparison to money income. In contrast to official measures, our measure shows that racial disparity increased. The increase in measured inequality was higher than indicated by the official measures.

Date: 2007
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