Table 2.

Equivalized Expenditures for Two-Child Families

	30–36th Percentiles ($)	% of Total Expenditure
Total expenditure	41,131	100
Basic bundle	20,290	49
20% more	4,058	10
Initial threshold*	24,348	59
Itemized expenditures:
Housing and utilities	12,581	31
Food	6,536	16
Apparel	1,192	3
Transportation†	5,335	13
Health care	2,293	6
Education and reading	621	2
Personal care	227	1
Insurance and retirement	4,958	12
Entertainment	2,117	5
Cash contributions	909	2
Alcohol and tobacco	520	1
Miscellaneous	487	1

Note.— n = 1,597 families. Estimates are based on 2003–07 Consumer Expenditure Survey data, and values are adjusted to January 2007 dollars (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis n.d.). Original expenditure values for each two-child family are equivalized to represent the amount that would be spent if that family were a two-adult, two-child family. The 1995 NAS panel’s poverty threshold is defined as the sum of expenditure on the basic bundle and a multiplier of 1.2 at a given expenditure percentile.

^*The NAS poverty threshold is defined as expenditure on the basic bundle, plus a multiplier of 1.2 at a given expenditure percentile.

^† There is extreme variability in transportation expenditures and its source is unclear. Transportation expenditures in the top decile are therefore recoded at the 90^th percentile and those in the bottom decile are recoded at the 10th (Angrist and Krueger 1999).