The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The design and content of household surveys

1.1 Survey design

1.2 The content and quality of survey data

1.3 The Living Standards Surveys

1.4 Descriptive statistics from survey data

1.5 Guide to further reading

2. Econometric issues for survey data

2.1 Survey design and regressions

2.2 The econometrics of clustered samples

2.3 Heteroskedasticity and quantile regressions

2.4 Structure and regression in nonexperimental data

2.5 Panel data

2.6 Instrumental variables

  • Policy evaluation and natural experiments
  • Econometric issues for instrumental variables
    •

    2.7 Using a time-series of cross-sections

    2.8 Two issues in statistical inference

  • Parameter transformations: the delta method
  • Sample size and hypothesis tests
    •

    2.9 Guide to further reading

    3. Welfare, poverty, and distribution

    3.1 Living standards, inequality, and poverty

  • Social welfare
  • Inequality and social welfare
  • Measures of inequality
  • Poverty and social welfare
  • The construction of poverty lines
  • Measures of poverty
  • The choice of the individual welfare measure
  • Example 1. Inequality and poverty over time in Côte d'Ivoire
  • Example 2: Inequality and poverty by race in South Africa
  • Exploring the welfare distribution: inequality
  • Lorenz curves and inequality in South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire
  • Stochastic dominance
  • Exploring the welfare distribution: poverty

    • 3.2 Nonparametric methods for estimating densities

  • Estimating univariate densities: histograms
  • Estimating univariate densities: kernel estimators
  • Estimating univariate densities: examples
  • Extensions and alternatives
  • Estimating bivariate densities: examples
    •

    3.3 Analyzing the distributional effects of policy

    3.4 Guide to further reading

    4. Nutrition, children, and intrahousehold allocation

    4.1 The demand for food and nutrition

  • Welfare measures: economic or nutritional?
  • Nutrition and productivity
  • The expenditure elasticity of nutrition
  • Background; evidence from India and Pakistan
  • Regression functions and regression slopes for Maharashtra
  • Allowing for household structure
  • The effect of measurement errors

    • 4.2 Intra-household allocation and gender bias

    4.3 Equivalence scales: theory and practice

  • Equivalence scales, welfare, and poverty
  • The relevance of household expenditure data
  • Cost-of-living indices, consumers’ surplus, and utility theory
  • Calculating the welfare effect of price
  • Equivalence scales, the cost of children, and utility theory
  • The underidentification of equivalence scales
  • Engel’s method
  • Rothbarth’s method
  • Other models of equivalence scales
  • Economies of scale within the household
  • Utility theory and the identification of economies of scale
    •

    4.4 Guide to further reading

    5. Looking at price and tax reform

    5.1 The theory of price and tax reform for developing countries

    5.2 The analysis of spatial price variation

  • Regional price data
  • Household price data
  • Unit values and the choice of quality
  • Measurement error in unit values
    •

    5.3 Modeling the choice of quality and quantity

  • A stripped-down model of demand and unit values
  • Modeling quality
  • Estimating the stripped-down model
  • An example from Côte d’Ivoire
  • Functional form
  • Quality, quantity, and welfare: cross-price effects
  • Cross-price effects: estimation
  • Completing the system
    •

    5.4 Empirical results for India and Pakistan

  • Preparatory analysis
  • The first-stage estimates
  • Price responses: the second-stage estimates for Pakistan
  • Price estimates and taste variation, Maharashtra
    •

    5.5 Looking at price and tax reform

  • Shadow taxes and subsidies in Pakistan
  • Shadow taxes and subsidies in India
  • Adapting the price reform formulas
  • Equity and efficiency in price reform in Pakistan
  • Equity and efficiency in price-reform in India
    •

    5.6 Price reform: parametric and nonparametric analysis

    5.7 Guide to further reading

    6. Saving and consumption smoothing

    6.1 Life-cycle interpretations of saving

  • Age profiles of consumption
  • Consumption and saving by cohorts
  • Estimating a life-cycle model for Taiwan (China)
    •

    6.2 Short-term consumption smoothing and permanent income

  • Saving and weather variability
  • Saving as a predictor of income change?
    •

    6.3 Models of saving for poor households

  • The basic model of intertemporal choice
  • Special cases: the permanent income and life-cycle models
  • Further analysis of the basic model: precautionary saving
  • Restrictions on borrowing
  • Borrowing restrictions and the empirical evidence
    •

    6.4 Social insurance and consumption

  • Consumption insurance in theory
  • Empirical evidence on consumption insurance
    •

    6.5 Saving, consumption, and inequality

  • Consumption, permanent income, and inequality
  • Inequality and age: empirical evidence
  • Aging and inequality
    •

    6.6 Household saving and policy: a tentative review

    6.7 Guide to further reading

    Code appendix

    Bibliography

    Subject index

    Author index