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Reconciliation of income and consumption data in poverty measurement

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  • Richard Bavier

    (Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC)

Abstract

A recent series of papers has renewed interest in the question of whether consumption data are superior to income data for poverty measurement. Although the Census Bureau has provided researchers with an experimental series of variables that can produce a comprehensive income measure, this resource has not been fully exploited in previous analyses. When poverty is measured by a comprehensive income measure, income poverty rates and trends are similar to consumption poverty rates. Arguments that income is measured with more error than consumption at the bottom of the distribution are shown to be based upon inferior income data. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Bavier, 2008. "Reconciliation of income and consumption data in poverty measurement," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 40-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:27:y:2008:i:1:p:40-62
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.20306
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jonathan Fisher, 2006. "Income Imputation and the Analysis of Expenditure Data in the Consumer Expenditure Survey," Working Papers 394, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    2. Marc Roemer, 2002. "Using Administrative Earnings Records to Assess Wage Data Quality in the March Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation," Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Technical Papers 2002-22, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Sheldon Danziger & Geng Li & Robert F. Schoeni, 2006. "Studying consumption with the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: comparisons with the Consumer Expenditure Survey and an application to the intergenerational transmission of well-being," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-16, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Christopher Jencks & Susan E. Mayer, "undated". "Do Official Poverty Rates Provide Useful Information about Trends in Children's Economic Welfare?," IPR working papers 96-1, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    5. Goudreau, Karen & Oberheu, Howard & Vaughan, Denton, 1984. "An Assessment of the Quality of Survey Reports of Income from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Program," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(2), pages 179-186, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ceriani, Lidia & Hlasny, Vladimir & Verme, Paolo, 2021. "Bottom Incomes and the Measurement of Poverty: A Brief Assessment of the Literature," GLO Discussion Paper Series 914, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Achille Lemmi & Donatella Grassi & Alessandra Masi & Nicoletta Pannuzi & Andrea Regoli, 2019. "Methodological Choices and Data Quality Issues for Official Poverty Measures: Evidences from Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 299-330, January.
    3. David Brady & Marco Giesselmann & Ulrich Kohler & Anke Radenacker, 2018. "How to measure and proxy permanent income: evidence from Germany and the U.S," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 321-345, September.
    4. Marianne Bitler & Hilary Hoynes & Elira Kuka, 2017. "Child Poverty, the Great Recession, and the Social Safety Net in the United States," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 358-389, March.
    5. Briones, Kristine Joy & Lopez, Jessa & Elumbre, Roxanne Jean & Angangco, Therese Marie, 2021. "Income, consumption, and poverty measurement in the Philippines," MPRA Paper 106025, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Mike Brewer & Ben Etheridge & Cormac O’Dea, 2017. "Why are Households that Report the Lowest Incomes So Well‐off?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 24-49, October.
    7. Brewer, Mike & O'Dea, Cormac, 2012. "Measuring living standards with income and consumption: evidence from the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2012-05, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Maharjan, Keshav Lall & Joshi, Niraj Prakash, 2009. "Relationship between Income-poverty and Food insecurity in Rural Far-western Mid-hills of Nepal," MPRA Paper 35378, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kenneth A. Couch & Maureen A. Pirog, 2010. "Poverty measurement in the U.S., Europe, and developing countries," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 217-226.
    10. Yanfeng Chen & Qingjie Xia & Xiaolin Wang, 2021. "Consumption and Income Poverty in Rural China: 1995–2018," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(4), pages 63-88, July.
    11. Isaac Koomson & Renato A. Villano & David Hadley, 2023. "The role of financial literacy in households’ asset accumulation process: evidence from Ghana," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 591-614, June.
    12. Christopher Wimer & Liana Fox & Irwin Garfinkel & Neeraj Kaushal & Jane Waldfogel, 2016. "Progress on Poverty? New Estimates of Historical Trends Using an Anchored Supplemental Poverty Measure," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1207-1218, August.
    13. Mike Brewer & Cormac O'Dea, 2012. "Measuring living standards with income and consumption: evidence from the UK," IFS Working Papers W12/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    14. Cristina Bernini & Silvia Emili & Maria Rosaria Ferrante, 2023. "Poverty‐happiness nexus: Does the use of regional poverty lines matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(2), pages 253-272, April.
    15. repec:esx:essedp:736 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Alessandra Michelangeli & Eugenio Peluso & Alain Trannoy, 2011. "Detecting a change in wealth concentration without the knowledge of the wealth distribution," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(3), pages 373-391, September.

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