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Economically speaking, are we better off than we were ten years ago? Twenty years ago? In their thirst for evidence on this i

admin2021-01-08  60
问题    Economically speaking, are we better off than we were ten years ago? Twenty years ago?
   In their thirst for evidence on this issue, commentators seized on the recent report by the Census Bureau, which found that average household income rose by 5.2% in 2015. Unfortunately, that conclusion puts too much weight on a useful, but flawed and incomplete, statistic. Among the more significant problems with the Census’ s measure are that: 1) it excludes taxes, transfers, and compensation like employer-provided health insurance; and 2) it is based on surveys rather than data. Even if precisely measured, income data exclude important determinants of economic well-being, such as the hours of work needed to earn that income.
   While thinking about the question, we came across a recently published article by Charles Jones and Peter Klenow, which proposes an interesting new measure of economic welfare. While by no means perfect, it is considerably more comprehensive than average income, taking into account not only growth in consumption per person but also changes in working time, life expectancy, and inequality. Moreover, it can be used to assess economic performance both across countries and over time.
   The Jones-Klenow method can be illustrated by a cross-country example. Suppose we want to compare the economic welfare of citizens of the U. S. and France in 2005.
   In 2005, as the authors observe, real consumption per person in France was only 60% as high as the U. S. , making it appear that Americans were economically much better off than the French on average. However, that comparison omits other relevant factors: leisure time, life expectancy, and economic inequality. The French take longer vacations and retire earlier, so typically work fewer hours; they enjoy a higher life expectancy, presumably reflecting advantages with respect to health care, diet, lifestyle, and the like; and income and consumption are somewhat more equally distributed there than in the U. S. Because of these differences, comparing France’ s consumption with the U. S. ’ s overstates the gap in economic welfare.
   Similar calculations can be used to compare the U. S. and other countries. For example, this calculation puts economic welfare in the United Kingdom at 97% of U. S. levels, but estimates Mexican well-being at 22%.
   The Jones-Klenow measure can also assess an economy’ s performance over time. According to this measure, as of the early-to-mid-2000s, the U. S. had the highest economic welfare of any large country. Since 2007, economic welfare in the U. S. has continued to improve. However, the pace of improvement has slowed markedly.
   Methodologically, the lesson from the Jones-Klenow research is that economic welfare is multidimensional. Their approach is flexible enough that in principle other important quality-of-life changes could be incorporated—for example, decreases in total emissions of pollutants and declines in crime rates.
What does the author think of the 2015 report by the Census Bureau?
选项 A、It is based on questionable statistics.
B、It reflects the economic changes.
C、It evidences the improved welfare.
D、It provides much food for thought.
答案A
解析 细节题。原文第二段第二句话指出，2015年美国人口普查局的报告得出的结果过于偏重一份统计数据，尽管该数据很有用，但是它是有缺陷的、不完整的。由此可知，作者认为这个普查报告的数据是有问题的，故答案为A。B、D两项原文均未提及，故排除。C项与原文不符，原文提及该报告显示，2015年家庭平均收入增长了5．2％，但这并不能证实经济福利提高了，故排除。
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