Building a Consumption Poverty Measure: Initial Results Following Recommendations of a Federal Interagency Working Group
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 112,
May 2022
(pp. 335-39)
Abstract
Consumption is a well-being measure that is determined by a combination of resources (e.g., income, in-kind benefits, assets, debt, time) available to households, their circumstances, and their preferences. In this study, we derive consumption poverty statistics using a consumption measure that includes the flow of services from owner-occupied housing and vehicles and in-kind transfers. The base data are from the US Consumer Expenditure Survey Interview from 2015 through 2020. The consumption poverty rate (using an absolute threshold anchored to the 2015 relative consumption poverty rate) declines from 16.8 percent in 2015 to 11.5 percent in 2020.Citation
Armstrong, Grayson, Caleb Cho, Thesia I. Garner, Brett Matsumoto, Juan Munoz, and Jake Schild. 2022. "Building a Consumption Poverty Measure: Initial Results Following Recommendations of a Federal Interagency Working Group." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112: 335-39. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20221041Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C43 Index Numbers and Aggregation; leading indicators
- E21 Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty