The Insights and Illusions of Consumption Measurements
Although household well-being is anchored in long-term average rates of consumption, welfare comparisons typically rely on shorter-duration survey measurements. This paper develops a new strategy to identify the distribution of these long-term rate...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/859711590085498228/The-Insights-and-Illusions-of-Consumption-Measurements http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33818 |
| Summary: | Although household well-being is
anchored in long-term average rates of consumption, welfare
comparisons typically rely on shorter-duration survey
measurements. This paper develops a new strategy to identify
the distribution of these long-term rates by leveraging a
large-scale randomization that elicited repeated
short-duration measurements from diaries and recall
questions. Identification stems from diary-recall
differences in reports from the same household, does not
require these reports to be error-free, and hinges on a
research design with broad replicability. This strategy
delivers cost-effective suggestions for designing survey
modules to yield the most accurate measurements of
consumption well-being, and offers new insights for
interpreting and reconciling diary-recall differences in
household expenditure surveys. |
|---|