International Comparisons of Income Levels: An Additional Measure

Aid type and its relationship with human well being

“…However, this in itself is a narrow measure for it is noted that the use of per capita real income may not always be an adequate measure of development (for example, Ghatak, 1995, p. 34). Non‐monetary variables like stock of radios and telephones, consumption of meat, number of letters sent, newspaper circulation are other useful indicators of human well being, overall quality of life (Dugger, 1968) and social and political developments. In a recent study, Sen (1998) notes that the GNP per capita may be a good indicator of the average real income of the nation, but the quality of life of a person depends not merely on his or her personal income, but also on various physical and social conditions: the epidemiological atmosphere, the availability of health care; education; orderliness of urban living and access to modern medical knowledge.…”

Affluence and Food: A Simple Way to Infer Incomes

“…Variations of this theme are provided byDuggar (1969), who uses money holdings instead of consumption variables, andSahn and Stifel (2003), who use the stock of consumer durables.3 It is also worth mentioning that in the fields of economic history and economic development the link between stature and real incomes, and the degree to which the former can be inferred from the latter, has been studied; for a survey, seeSteckel (1995).…”