The Insights and Illusions of Consumption Measurements
43 Pages Posted: 14 May 2020
There are 3 versions of this paper
The Insights and Illusions of Consumption Measurements
The Insights and Illusions of Consumption Measurements
The Insights and Illusions of Consumption Measurements
Abstract
While household well-being derives from long-term average rates of consumption, welfare comparisons typically rely on shorter-duration survey measurements. We develop a new strategy to identify the distribution of these long-term rates by leveraging a large-scale randomization in Iraq 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 reports to be error-free, and hinges on a research design with broad replicability. Our strategy delivers practical and costeffective suggestions for designing survey modules to yield the closest measurements of consumption well-being. In addition, we find little empirical support for the claim that acquisition diaries yield the most accurate measurement of poverty and inequality and offer new insights to interpret and reconcile diary-recall differences in household surveys.
Keywords: modes of data collection, measurement of inequality and poverty, household surveys
JEL Classification: C81, D31, D63, E21, I32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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