Does repeated measurement improve income data quality?

Publication type

Journal Article

Author

Publication date

October 15, 2019

Summary:

This paper exploits a natural experiment created by a survey design to show that the quality of income data systematically changes across waves of a panel. We estimate that the effect of being interviewed for a second time, relative to the first, is to increase mean monthly income by 8%. Dependent interviewing – a recall device commonly used in panel surveys – explains one third of the observed increase. The remaining share is attributed to changes in respondent behaviour (panel conditioning). We review the evidence for and against a reporting improvement vs. a behavioural response by survey participants.

Published in

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 81 , p.989 -1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12296

ISSN

3059049

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Authors. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics published by Oxford University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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