IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/femeco/v4y1998i3p129-142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Basic Needs Budgets Revisited: Does the U.S. Consumer Price Index Overestimate the Changes in the Cost of Living for Low-Income Families?

Author

Listed:
  • Trudi Renwick

Abstract

The consumer price index (CPI) is used in the United States to measure changes in the cost of living. Since the CPI is used to index the official U.S. poverty guidelines and to establish eligibility criteria for various public assistance programs, a change in the methodology used to calculate the CPI would impact the accuracy of poverty statistics and, more importantly, poor families' access to public assistance. Since the majority of these poor families are headed by women, the CPI becomes a critical issue for feminist economics. In December 1996 the United States Senate Finance Committee's Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index issued its final report which concluded that use of the consumer price index results in widespread substantial overindexing. This paper uses the basic needs budgets (BNB) to evaluate changes in the cost of living for low-income families. The author compares the cost of the BNBs for single-parent families in 1983 and 1996 and finds that the cost of the bundle of goods and services included in the BNBs has increased faster than the CPI. The author finds similar results for two-parent families.

Suggested Citation

  • Trudi Renwick, 1998. "Basic Needs Budgets Revisited: Does the U.S. Consumer Price Index Overestimate the Changes in the Cost of Living for Low-Income Families?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 129-142.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:4:y:1998:i:3:p:129-142
    DOI: 10.1080/135457098338338
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/135457098338338
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/135457098338338?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julie A. Nelson, 1995. "Feminism and Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 131-148, Spring.
    2. Trudi J. Renwick & Barbara R. Bergmann, 1993. "A Budget-Based Definition of Poverty: With an Application to Single-Parent Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-24.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thesia I. Garner & Katherine S. Short, 2008. "Creating a Consistent Poverty Measure Over Time Using NAS Procedures: 1996-2005," Working Papers 417, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    2. Latimaha, Rusli & Bahari, Zakaria & Ismail, Nor Asmat, 2019. "Middle Income Household Spending Patterns on Housing in Malaysian State Capital Cities: Where Does All the Money Go?," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 53(2), pages 55-65.
    3. Latimaha, Rusli & Bahari, Zakaria & Ismail, Nor Asmat, 2018. "Factors Influencing the Basic Needs Budget Among the Middle Income Earners in Selected Major Cities in Malaysia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 52(3), pages 29-39.
    4. Thesia I. Garner & Kathleen Short, 2005. "Economic Well-Being Based on Income, Consumer Expenditures and Personal Assessments of Minimal Needs," Working Papers 381, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    5. Latimaha, Rusli & Ismail, Nor Asmat & Bahari, Zakaria, 2020. "Cost of Living and Standard of Living Nexus: The Determinants of Cost of Living," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 54(3), pages 1-14.
    6. Latimaha, Rusli & Ismail, Nor Asmat, 2019. "Examining the Linkages between Street Crime and Selected State Economic Variables in Malaysia: A Panel Data Analysis," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 53(1), pages 59-72.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stanley L. Brue, 1996. "Controversy and Change in the American Economics Curriculum," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 40(2), pages 44-51, October.
    2. Solow, John L. & Kirkwood, Nicole, 2002. "Group identity and gender in public goods experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 403-412, August.
    3. Gillian Hewitson, 2001. "A Survey of Feminist Economics," Working Papers 2001.01, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    4. Julie A. Nelson, 2012. "Is Dismissing the Precautionary Principle the Manly Thing to Do? Gender and the Economics of Climate Change," GDAE Working Papers 12-04, GDAE, Tufts University.
    5. Olena Hankivsk & Jane Friesen & Colleen Varcoe & Fiona MacPhail & Lorraine Greaves & Charmaine Spencer, 2004. "Expanding Economic Costing in Health Care: Values, Gender and Diversity," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 30(3), pages 257-282, September.
    6. Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli & Antonietta Cosentino & Mara Del Baldo & Angela Magistro, 2024. "Feminist Economics and Feminist Accounting in Dialogue: The Contribution to World Inequalities and Ecological Emergencies," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 18(6), pages 202-202, January.
    7. repec:dgr:rugsom:96c01 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Amy Trauger & Carolyn Sachs & Mary Barbercheck & Kathy Brasier & Nancy Kiernan, 2010. "“Our market is our community”: women farmers and civic agriculture in Pennsylvania, USA," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(1), pages 43-55, March.
    9. Wendy Olsen, 2007. "Structure, Agency, and Strategy Among Tenants in India," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-080, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. Thomas J. Miceli & Alanson P. Minkler, 1997. "Preferences, cooperation, and Institutions," Working papers 1997-06, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    11. Giandomenica Becchio, 2018. "Gender, Feminist and Heterodox Economics: Interconnections and Differences in a Historical Perspective," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 5-24, March.
    12. Lars Osberg, 2001. "Needs and Wants: What is Social Progress and How Should it be Measured," The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, in: Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director & France St-Hilaire, Vice-President , Research & Keith Banting, Di (ed.), The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s, volume 1, Centre for the Study of Living Standards;The Institutute for Research on Public Policy.
    13. Karin Astrid Siegmann & Myriam Blin, 2006. "The Best Of Two Worlds: Between-Method Triangulation In Feminist Economics Research," Working Papers 146, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    14. Plaček, Michal & del Campo, Cristina & Valentinov, Vladislav & Vaceková, Gabriela & Šumpíková, Markéta & Ochrana, František, 2022. "Gender heterogeneity and politics in decision-making about green public procurement in the Czech Republic," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(3), pages 239-250.
    15. Shawn Fremstad, 2010. "A Modern Framework for Measuring Poverty and Basic Economic Security," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2010-12, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    16. Thesia I. Garner & Katherine S. Short, 2008. "Creating a Consistent Poverty Measure Over Time Using NAS Procedures: 1996-2005," Working Papers 417, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    17. Cagatay, Nilufer & Elson, Diane & Grow, Caren, 1995. "Introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(11), pages 1827-1836, November.
    18. Paolo Santori, 2023. "Careocracy or isocracy? A feminist alternative to the neoliberal meritocratic discourse," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    19. Labrinidis, George & Maniatis, Thanasis & Bassiakos, Yannis & Oikonomou, Aris & Papadopoulou, Marianna & Passas, Costas, 2010. "Εμπειρική Προσέγγιση Της Απόλυτης Φτώχειας Στην Ελλάδα: Οι Ανάγκες Για Κατοικία, Διατροφή, Ένδυση, Υπόδηση, Μεταφορά [Empirical approach of absolute poverty in Greece: the needs for housing, nutrit," MPRA Paper 57809, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Ferraro, Emilia & Reid, Louise, 2013. "On sustainability and materiality. Homo faber, a new approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 125-131.
    21. O'Laughlin, B., 1999. "In defence of the household : Marx, gender and the utilitarian impasse," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19034, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:4:y:1998:i:3:p:129-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.