This paper reports progress on the development of improved measures of income and poverty by accounting for differences in living costs between regions, and on the tracing of relationships between natural resources and income; a reviewer's comments conclude the contents of this workshop collection. The overview describes how a measure of income was developed incorporating a quality-of-life (QOL) index--determined from regional factors--and how it was applied to income data from all 3,140 counties in the United States. Following the overview, sections apply the QOL index to income and poverty. The QOL index is then used to help describe interrelations between income and natural resources by citing three pilot studies which focus on per capita income related to coal production in Kentucky, patterns of irrigated land use in agriculture, and off-farm work and government payments in agriculture. The conclusion considers some critiques of wage differential analysis and of quality-of-life deflation and covers some key implications of the approach. Comments suggest a more "micro" data base for wages and occupations, a more detailed hedonic model, a simultaneous equation framework, and further conceptual development for such measurements. (PM)