To misreport or not to report? The measurement of household financial wealth

Andrea Neri and Maria Giovanna Ranalli ()
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Maria Giovanna Ranalli: Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, University of Perugia

No 870, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: The objective of the paper is to adjust for the bias due to unit non-response and measurement error in survey estimates of total household financial wealth. Sample surveys are a useful source of information on household wealth. Yet, survey estimates are affected by non-sampling errors. In particular, in the case of household wealth, unit non-response and measurement error can severely bias the estimates. Using the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), we exploit the available auxiliary information in order to assess the magnitude of this bias. We find evidence that for this kind of survey, non-sampling errors are a major issue, possibly more serious than sampling errors. Moreover, in the case of SHIW the potential bias due to measurement error seems to outweigh that induced by non-response.

Keywords: unit non-response; measurement error; auxiliary information; subsampling; imputation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C2 C42 D31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_870_12

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