# **II Data**

In order to obtain estimates of welfare for 2014-15, we first identify variables that are common both to the three earlier consumption surveys and the 2014-15 round. The surveys have five demographic variables in common. They are household size, age of household members, gender, religion, and caste contained in the “household characteristics” section of each survey. The three common labor market variables are the household’s principal industry, principal occupation and principal means of livelihood.

The principal industry of a household is determined according to the National Industrial Classification (NIC) 2008 code for the NSSO72, NSSO68 and NSSO66 surveys and the NIC 1998 code for the NSSO61 survey.<sup>16</sup> Regarding the principal occupation, the NSSO72, NSSO68 and NSSO66 surveys categorize households according to the National Classification of Occupations (NCO) 2004 code and the NSS061 survey according to the NCO 1968 code. To ensure consistency, the occupation categories are harmonized across survey years. We further group households into high skill, middle skill and low skill occupation categories.<sup>17</sup> The household’s principal means of livelihood is determined from the “household type” variable. The categories are self-employed, regular wage/salary earning, casual labor and “other”.<sup>18</sup> In addition, the surveys ask questions regarding expenses on miscellaneous services such as household service (domestic help, barber, beauty, laundry, priest, grinding, tailor), recreation (cinema/theater, fairs/picnics, club fees, photography, VCD/DVD on hire) and transport (conveyance related expenses). We also include a district-level rainfall variable that accounts for deviations from the mean.<sup>19</sup> Second, we ensure that the wording and recall periods on the questions are comparable over time. Both different wording and/or recall periods would change the

> 16Households whose principal industry is agriculture, forestry or fishing are classified into the agricultural sector. Those that work principally in mining, manufacturing, construction or for the utilities are industrial sector households. Lastly, service sector households are those that work in wholesale or retail trade, food and accomodation, transportation and storage, information and communication, finance and insurance, real estate, professional and scientific, administrative and support, public administration and defense, education, health or arts and recreation.

> 17Legislators, senior officials, managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals are in the high skill category. Clerks, service workers, shop and market sales workers are classified as middle skill. Workers in agriculture and fishery, craft and related trades, plant and machine operators, assemblers and those in “elementary” occupations are classified as low skill.

> 18For rural areas, each of the categories are reported as agriculture and non-agriculture subclassifications that we group together to make them comparable to the urban areas.

> 19The rainfall data were taken from the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) data set on precipitation (Funk, Verdin, Michaelsen, Peterson, Pedreros, and Husak (2015)).

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