Measuring Wealth in Household Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. An introduction to the World Bank Guidelines

The present paper outlines the main content of the Guidelines for Measuring Wealth in Household Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) developed by the World Bank in collaboration with other institutions. After highlighting the importance of collecting wealth data in LMICs and the lack of suitable guidance for data collection in these economic contexts, the paper describes the key points of the Guidelines, which include a discussion on the items to collect and major considerations regarding how survey data should be gathered. The Guidelines do not offer a one-size-fits-all solution; instead, they provide a series of suitable options for collecting wealth data in LMICs along with some general recommendations that need to be adapted to the specific context of each country, taking into account both household economic conditions and the statistical resources already available for microeconomic analyses.