Can Subjective Questions on Economic Welfare Be Trusted? Evidence for Three Developing Countries

Ravallion, Martin ; Himelein, Kristen ; Beegle, Kathleen

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADMINISTRATIVE REGION;    ADULT MALE;    AGRICULTURE;    COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS;    CONSUMER BEHAVIOR;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6726
RP-ID  :  WPS6726

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

While self-assessments of welfare havebecome popular for measuring poverty and estimating welfareeffects, the methods can be deceptive given systematicheterogeneity in respondents' scales. Little is knownabout this problem. This study uses specially-designedsurveys in three countries, Tajikistan, Guatemala, andTanzania, to study scale heterogeneity. Respondents wereasked to score stylized vignettes, as well as their ownhousehold. Diverse scales are in evidence, castingconsiderable doubt on the meaning of widely-used summarymeasures such as subjective poverty rates. Nonetheless,under the identifying assumptions of the study, only smallbiases are induced in the coefficients on widely-usedregressors for subjective poverty and welfare.