Lessons Learned on Poverty Measurement through Household Panel Surveys

Panel surveys offer insights into the development process that data collected for short-term purposes cannot provide. They enable development economics researchers to follow households over time and observe multiple aspects of individuals’ lives, enabling a better understanding of the dynamics of development and structural transformation. Also, by including a fuller picture of how “life as usual” looks for a representative subset of the relevant populations, panels allow researchers to understand coping strategies and longer-run impacts of shocks when they occur.
The Plenary Session of the North East Universities Development Consortium (NEUDC) 2022 Conference on November 5, 2022 featured development economists introducing three major household panel surveys available to researchers and elevating key measurement questions related to the collection and use of this type of data. Hosted by the Yale Economic Growth Center, the event included a moderated discussion followed by Q&A with the audience of NEUDC attendees. For more information on the conference, visit egc.yale.edu/e... - and for more information on data available from the Economic Growth Center, visit egc.yale.edu/data
Speakers:
Christopher R. Udry, King Professor of Economics at Northwestern University and Co-director of the Global Poverty Research Lab, delivered opening comments.
Andre Nickow, Research Manager at the Global Poverty Research Lab, and Samuel Ampaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University, discussed the EGC-ISSER-Northwestern Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey:
Graciela Teruel, Professor and Director of the Institute of Research into Sustainable Development and Social Equity (IIDSES) at Universidad Iberoamericano, discussed the Mexican Family Life Survey.
Mushfiq Mobarak, Professor of Economics at Yale University and Faculty Director of the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE) discussed The Cox's Bazar Panel Survey.
Rohini Pande, Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics, Director of the Economic Growth Center and Director of Inclusion Economics at Yale University moderated the event.