German and US LIS data are used to compare the relative economic well-being of Germans and Americans in the 1980s. Both official and consumption-based country specific equivalence scales are used.

Using linked 2009 Current Population Survey (CPS)-Annual Social and Economic Supplement/Social Security Administration records data and a definition of disability based on the six-question disability sequence (6QS) in the CPS-Basic Monthly Survey, we perform a face validity test that shows that...