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Standard of living measures

Standard of living measures. Stephen P. Jenkins Institute for Social and Economic Research Email: stephenj@essex.ac.uk. The diversity of potential SoL measures: monetary & non-monetary. For example: money income (aggregated over a number of income sources)

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Standard of living measures

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  1. Standard of living measures Stephen P. Jenkins Institute for Social and Economic Research Email: stephenj@essex.ac.uk

  2. The diversity of potential SoL measures:monetary & non-monetary For example: • money income (aggregated over a number of income sources) • ‘consumption’ – expenditures (aggregated over a number of headings), and other indicators • financial wealth and other assets • multiple non-monetary indicators of deprivation or hardship, and associated summary indices • subjective measures of financial well-being, satisfaction, and happiness • SoL measures are used both as outcomes and predictors

  3. SoL measures: current practice • Household income: most commonly used measure, including in official monitoring of poverty and living standards in UK, Europe and elsewhere • e.g. BHPS, ECHP, EU-SILC, PSID, SIPP, GSOEP, etc. • Consumption expenditure: emphasised by economists • few detailed comprehensive measures in longitudinal surveys (focus of selected items, e.g. housing, food, durables) • Wealth data • detailed & regular for e.g. housing; fewer detailed and comprehensive, or regularly collected, measures • Material deprivation indicators: now supplementing UK and EU official monitoring • e.g. BHPS, ECHP • Subjective measures: growing interest • e.g. BHPS, GSOEP • No survey currently contains all measures

  4. Top-level issues • What are the most important research questions to be addressed using SoL measures, now and potentially in the future? • Which of the measures cited (or others) should receive priority? • How important is continuity of measurement relative to the existing BHPS, and comparability with other UK national surveys? • To what extent is cross-national comparability an important consideration?

  5. Some common definitional issues • Optimal data collection frequency? • e.g. sub-annual, annual, less frequent • Reference period? • e.g. current versus annual for income/expenditure • How comprehensive a measure is really required? • e.g. specific aspects of total income/expenditure/wealth versus aggregate itself • e.g. domain satisfactions versus overall happiness • e.g. which indicators of deprivation • Which ‘unit(s)’ necessary for? • each adult? each individual? key persons? household?

  6. Various data collection issues • Relative pay-offs to different methods of data collection? • e.g. face-to-face interviews versus telephone or web; • e.g. interviewer-derived versus self-completion; • e.g. non-traditional tools of data collection • e.g. use of proxy respondents • Relative pay-offs to different levels of detail • e.g. exact amounts, grouped, unfolding bracket • e.g. number of categories in a deprivation indicator or happiness measure

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