How Useful Are Integrated Household Survey Data For Policy Oriented Analyses Of Poverty

Simpler and bigger are better, for household living standards surveys. And better collection of price data, in an independent survey, should be a priority.

Using data from several countries, including Cote d'Ivoire, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Thailand, this book analyzes household survey data from developing countries and illustrates how such data can be used to cast light on a range of short-term and long-term policy issues.

In high inflation economies exchange- rate- based stabilizations typically start with a boom, with the recession coming later. In contrast, in similar programs in the moderate inflation European economies, the recession generally appears upfront. When such programs result in a boom, it is driven by different forces than in the high inflation economies.

Analysts must pay close attention to sampling procedures used to collect survey data. This case study illustrates how observed changes in household welfare and in the incidence of poverty can vanish when corrections are applied to the data for changes in sampling procedures - and how even the direction of the trend may be reversed.

A comparison of teachers' salaries against the salaries of other workers did not support the position that teachers are either overpaid or underpaid in Latin America.