Why Does the Engel Method Work? Food Demand, Economies of Size and Household Survey Methods
发现恩格尔方法估计的家庭规模经济大小取决于支出数据的收集方式：回忆法估计值大，日记法估计值小，且回忆法存在与家庭规模相关的测量误差，这有助于解释Deaton和Paxson（1998）关于富国与穷国家庭规模对食品需求影响差异的困惑。
Estimates of household size economies are needed for the analysis of poverty and inequality.This paper shows that Engel estimates of size economies are large when household expenditures are obtained by respondent recall but small when expenditures are obtained by daily recording in diaries.Expenditure estimates from recall surveys appear to have measurement errors correlated with household size.As well as demonstrating the fragility of Engel estimates of size economies, these results help resolve a puzzle raised by Deaton and Paxson (1998) about differences between rich and poor countries in the effect of household size on food demand.