Journal of Economic and Social Measurement - Volume 26, issue 1

Authors: DeFina, Robert H.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A distribution-sensitive poverty measure developed by Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke has several characteristics which strongly recommend its use in applied poverty analysis. This article expands its usefulness by deriving an analytical expression that exactly decomposes a change in the index …into: 1) growth due to population-share changes; and, 2) growth due to within-group poverty changes. It also adjusts the basic index to allow for multiple poverty lines, as are used in the United States. The theoretical framework is applied to Current Population Survey data to examine how U.S. population-share changes in industry, race, and family-structure categories have contributed to growth in the index between 1979 and 1996. The effects of these structural shifts have been a special concern to policy makers throughout the past decade. Resulting computations indicate that these share changes have played only a minor role. Most of index's growth instead stems from within-group poverty increases. Show more

Keywords: poverty index, decomposition

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-2000-0167

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 1-10, 2000

Authors: Klein, L.R. | Makino, J.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Through many comprehensive revisions of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) of the US, a significant discrepancy has persisted, namely that between the estimate of the headline total now called Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the side of expenditures …or from the side of imcome payments. This discrepancy is not trivial (now in the neighborhood of -\$100^+ bn.); it is not random; it is wrongly attributed exclusively to the income side estimates. There have been interesting proposals for systematically allocating it among NIPA entries according to some statistical rule. Students of the discrepancy, over the years, have noted systematic variation with respect to international trade, inventory investment, total output and other variables. In recent years, the income side total has given a different estimate of the historical rate of change of output per worker, obviously an extremely important statistic. In a fresh examination of the discrepancy through 1996 (quarterly), we find, in this paper, suggestive correlation with business earnings, itself a very important but difficult magnitude to measure. If the NIPA data are to be used in an important way for policy guidance, a more careful treatment based on economic and statistical analysis is called for. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-2000-0163

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 11-29, 2000

Authors: Madrian, Brigitte C. | Lefgren, Lars John

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In this paper, we propose an approach for evaluating the trade-offs inherent in different approaches used to match Current Population Survey (CPS) respondents across various CPS surveys. Because there is some measurement error in both the variables used the identify …individuals over time and in the characteristics of individuals at any point in time, any procedure used to match CPS respondents has the possibility of both generating incorrect matches and failing to generate potentially valid matches. We propose using the information contained in the variable on whether an individual lived in the same house on March 1 of the previous year as a way to gauge these trade-offs. We find that as measured by reported residence one year ago, increasing the fraction of ``invalid'' merges that are rejected usually comes at a cost of decreasing the fraction of ``valid'' merges that are retained. However, there are clearly some approaches that are superior to others in the sense that they result in both a higher fraction of ``invalid'' merges being rejected and a higher fraction of ``valid'' merges being retained. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-2000-0165

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 31-62, 2000

Authors: McCullough, B.D. | Renfro, Charles G.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Given a nonlinear estimation problem, it is well-known that one algorithm might produce a solution where another algorithm might fail. What is less well-known is that when both algorithms do produce solutions, one of the solutions might be more accurate …than the other. In particular, one might give several accurate digits, while the other gives no accurate digits. Possible sources of the phenomenon are presented, including step-length, stopping rule, convergence criterion and method of derivative calculation. Additionally, practical advice for using nonlinear solvers is offered. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-2000-0177

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 63-77, 2000