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THE STANDARD OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
Author(s) -
Slesnick Denial T.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1991.tb00379.x
Subject(s) - economics , standard of living , consumption (sociology) , econometrics , consumption function , index (typography) , consumer expenditure , cost of living , representation (politics) , demographic economics , aggregate expenditure , public economics , macroeconomics , production (economics) , social science , sociology , world wide web , computer science , market economy , politics , political science , law
A common approach to the evaluation of the standard of living is based on a function of real income. In the United States this often takes the form of CPI‐deflated mean household income. Material well‐being is more appropriately evaluated using a consumption‐based index. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys we find that real mean income provides an inaccurate representation of the level and trend of the standard of living relative to real per equivalent total expenditure in the postwar United States. The differences between real income and real total expenditure per household equivalent member are found at all levels of aggregation.