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toolbox: Income and expenditure (I&E) survey Attributed to: Jackeline
Velazco 1. What is the I&E survey The Income and Expenditure (I&E) survey has been prepared to produce data on the income and expenditure patterns of the household as a whole and on the individuals within it. It is designed to capture data on the different categories of incomes (self-employment, wage income, and in kind), expenditures (production costs, food and non-food items), credit and saving behaviour as well as subjective indicators as global happiness and life domain satisfaction. The survey is also designed to capture information on the extent of seasonal variations on income and expenditure over one year. Two different instruments are being used
to collect this information: a) a diary (Ethiopia, Thailand),
and b) a questionnaire (Bangladesh, Peru).
The different instruments have been devised to fit with other
aspects of
data collection
undertaken in the countries and hence also offer an opportunity
for comparative evaluation of the methods involved. The sample
selection has been informed by the results from the Resource
and Needs Questionnaire (RANQ ), either by using it as a
sampling frame for a random sample, or for an approach allowing
purposeful
sampling from categories of households according to objective
wellbeing indicators.
2. Conceptual rationale for I&E survey The WeD Framework implies that there are three basic categories of data that should be analysed: Having, Doing and Thinking. a) on what people/households/communities/nations have or do not have (material and human resources, social relationships, status) b) on what people do or do not, or can or cannot do, with these resources, c) on how people think about what they have (do not have) and can do (or not) with what they have. This encompasses how people make or cannot make sense of what happens (meaning); explanations of why people do what they do, and also (what we have thus far been calling Quality of Life) how people judge, assess, and feel about these things. The RANQ survey was an initial survey to collect information on households resources and needs. The need to keep it to a manageable size meant that it was not possible to incorporate income and expenditure data collection as well. It was therefore decided to collect this data separately. It is important though to have data on consumption measures of poverty in order to be able to analyse them in relation to measures of both objective and subjective wellbeing. However, the particular country contexts being researched demonstrate high degrees of seasonal variation. These result in fluctuations in income and expenditure, which can have significant impacts on measures of objective and subjective wellbeing. Concerns about which households are able to effectively smooth their consumption mean that capturing these fluctuations was considered to be of major importance. Hence the design of the instrument is to capture the data over a period of one year. The Income and Expenditure survey therefore provides information on what people do with their resources – the ‘flow’ data to complement the ‘stock’ data provided by the RANQ which offers detailed information on households’ access to and control over a wide range of resources, such as social, natural, material, human and cultural resources, that influence wellbeing outcomes. 3. How I&E surveys contribute to WeD research The Income and Expenditure Survey therefore serves the following three purposes for the WeD research: 1. The collection of data including expenditure,
income, saving, credit, household decision making on the allocation
of income
and expenditure, and needs satisfaction amongst the households
and individuals in the research communities
The two instruments, the questionnaire (Bangladesh, Peru) and the diary (Ethiopia, Thailand), collect data on the following main aspects:
5. How the I&E survey was developed Before the survey instruments were administered, they underwent a grounding and piloting phase within each of the four countries. This involved the identification of the empirical data required to address the conceptual issues; preparation of the survey instrument for the collection of empirical data; selection of the communities and households from which the data was to be gathered, mainly informed by RANQ data, and the planning of a data management system.
6. How the I&E survey was implemented The implementation of the survey has proceeded as follows in each of the WeD countries:
7. How the I&E surveys can be analysed The I&E data permits analysis a) within a site, b) across sites of the same country, e.g. by rural and urban areas, and potentially c) across the four countries. The following are examples of the research questions it could address:
Further analysis questions are captured
in the income and expenditure analysis
grid.
8. Links to other WeD research tools The Income and Expenditure survey provides a large data source which is linked directly to other WeD research tools. The diaries contain qualitative narrative accounts of the important events in the life of the household throughout the year as well as the income and expenditure data and therefore are also part of the process research. They therefore complement data from the RANQ with that of household income and expenditure and can also be directly linked for particular households and individuals to data collected using the Quality of Life (QoL) instruments.
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