JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. University of Wisconsin Press andThe Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Human Resources. ABSTRACT This paper discusses an investigation of the effects of systematic underreporting of income and of sample selectivity on the estimated levels of two subjective definitions of poverty: the socalled subjective poverty line and the Leyden poverty line. Both turn out to have substantially biasing effects. We present methods to remedy the biases. The resulting adjusted poverty lines prove to be quite accurate. Furthermore, we make suggestions for the design of questionnaires that are used in the surveys on which these poverty definitions are based.Kapteyn is a professor of economics at Tilburg University; Kooreman is a professor of economics at Tilburg as well. Willemse is a researcher for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia.