Measuring the Well-Being of the Poor Using Income and Consumption

Bruce Meyer and James X. Sullivan

No 9760, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We evaluate consumption and income measures of the material well-being of the poor. We begin with conceptual and pragmatic reasons that favor income or consumption. Then, we empirically examine the quality of standard data by studying measurement error and under-reporting, and by comparing micro-data from standard surveys to administrative micro-data and aggregates. We also compare low reports of income and consumption to other measures of hardship and well-being. The closer link between consumption and well-being and its better measurement favors the use of consumption when setting benefits and evaluating transfer programs. However, income retains its convenience for determining program eligibility.

JEL-codes: D12 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
Note: LS PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (190)

Published as Meyer, Bruce D and James X. Sullivan. "Measuring The Well-Being Of The Poor Using Income And Consumption," Journal of Human Resources, 2003, v38(Supplement), 1180-1220.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w9760.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9760

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w9760

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().