Roundtable:
Who is Poor? Measuring Poverty with Income or Consumption
(Poverty and Income Policy)
Saturday, November 4, 2017: 10:15 AM-11:45 AM
Stetson G (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Moderators: James P. Ziliak, University of Kentucky
Speakers: Bruce Meyer, University of Chicago, David Johnson, University of Michigan, Chris Wimer, Columbia University and Aparna Mathur, American Enterprise Institute
In determining the standard of living of families, researchers and policy makers are often interested in their access to food, clothing, shelter and other necessities. Economists often use a person’s consumption to measure their economic well-being (e.g., their utility). However, most of our measures of poverty and inequality use the family’s income as the measuring stick. This roundtable will discuss the differences in using income or consumption to measure poverty (and economic well-being in general), including the particular measures of consumption, alternative poverty measures, alternative data sources, their changes over time and what we can learn from each of these measure about methods to improve the well-being of families.
