This paper considers data quality issues for the analysis of consumption inequality exploiting two complementary datasets from the Consumer Expenditure Survey for the United States. The Interview sample follows survey households over four calendar quarters and consists of retrospectively collected information about monthly expenditures on durable and non-durable goods. The Diary sample interviews household for two consecutive weeks and includes detailed information about frequently purchased items (food, personal cares and household supplies). Most reliable information from each sample is exploited to derive a correction for the measurement error affecting observed measures of consumption inequality in the two surveys. We find that consumption inequality, as measured by the standard deviation of log non-durable consumption, has increased by roughly 5% points during the 1990s.
Authors
CPP Co-Director
Orazio is an International Research Fellow at the IFS, a Professor at Yale and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Erich Battistin
Research Associate University of Arizona, University of Tokyo
Hidehiko is a Professor of Economics at the Eller College of Management, University of Arizona and a Research Associate at the IFS.
Report details
- Publisher
- IFS
Suggested citation
O, Attanasio and E, Battistin and H, Ichimura. (2004). What really happened to consumption inequality in the US?. London: IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/what-really-happened-consumption-inequality-us (accessed: 29 March 2024).
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