John Gibson|Jikun Huang|Scott Rozelle
Improving Estimates of Inequality and Poverty from Urban China's Household Income and Expenditure Survey
urban china household income expenditure survey requires respondents keep daily expenditure diary full 12month period onerous reporting task makes difficult recruit respondents compromising sample article uses monthly expenditure data two urban areas china see data collection shortcuts extrapolating annual totals expenditure reports months year would harm accuracy annual expenditure inequality poverty estimates replacing 12month diaries simple extrapolations either one two four six months would cause sharp increase estimates annual inequality poverty undermines international comparisons inequality statistics country china uses comprehensive 12month expenditure records corrected form extrapolation based correlations households expenditures different months year gives much smaller errors estimates inequality poverty