December 2008

IZA DP No. 3896: Mismeasured Household Size and Its Implications for the Identification of Economies of Scale

published in: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2010, 72 (2), 246-262

We consider the possibility that demographic variables are measured with errors which arise because household surveys measure demographic structures at a point-in-time, whereas household composition evolves throughout the survey period. We construct and estimate sharp bounds on household size and find that the degree of these measurement errors is non-trivial. However, while these errors have the potential to resolve the Deaton-Paxson paradox, they fail to do so.