Does it cost less to live in rural areas? Evidence from new data on food security and hunger

Rural-urban differences, in the association of food insecurity and hunger w ith income suggest that the cost of living is substantially lower in rural than in urban areas. This implies that the official poverty rate overstates rural economic hardship compared with that in urban areas. Geographic diff erences in cost of living implied by the association between food insecurit y and income provide some validation of the cost: of housing adjustment pro posed by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel on improving the meas urement of poverty, but suggest that the NAS adjustment generally overcorre cts for cost of living and would be seriously problematic in some regions.