From Micro to Macro: Linking Individual Consumption Diaries with Administrative Welfare and Environmental Data

Recent studies (e.g., Gábos et al., 2024; Nam & Park, 2018) highlight the need for richer empirical evidence on how welfare reforms affect consumption and poverty. Yet, most research remains siloed—either using household surveys or administrative data, but rarely both, and almost never linking in environmental factors. This idea proposes assembling a unique, multi-source dataset: high-frequency consumption diaries (capturing detailed spending), administrative records of welfare receipt and eligibility, and geolocated data on environmental shocks (e.g., pollution, droughts, disasters). This would enable causal analysis of how policy shifts and environmental stressors jointly shape consumption choices, poverty dynamics, and welfare outcomes. Such a dataset would be a game-changer, opening new frontiers for empirical and policy-relevant research in poverty and welfare measurement.

References:

1. Unravelling the relationship between employment, social transfers and income poverty: Policy and measurement. A. Gábos, Barbara Binder, Réka Branyiczki, István György Tóth (2024). Journal of European Social Policy.
2. The 2015 Welfare Reform of the National Basic Livelihood Security System in South Korea: Effects on Income, Consumption, Labor Supply, Savings, and Poverty. Jaehyun Nam, Hyungjohn Park (2018).