Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223664 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13222
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
modes of data collection
measurement of inequality and poverty
household surveys
JEL: 
C81
D31
D63
E21
I32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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