What leads to measurement errors? Evidence from reports of program participation in three surveys

Pablo Celhay, Bruce D. Meyer and Nikolas Mittag

Journal of Econometrics, 2024, vol. 238, issue 2

Abstract: Measurement errors are often a large source of bias in survey data. Lack of knowledge of the determinants of such errors makes it difficult to reduce the extent of errors when collecting data and to assess the validity of analyses using the data. We study the determinants of reporting error using high quality administrative data on government transfers linked to three major U.S. surveys. Our results support several theories of misreporting: Errors are related to event recall, forward and backward telescoping, salience of receipt, the stigma of reporting participation in welfare programs and respondent's degree of cooperation with the survey overall. We provide evidence on how survey design choices affect reporting errors. Our findings help survey users to gauge the reliability of their data and to devise estimation strategies that can correct for systematic errors, such as instrumental variable approaches. Understanding survey errors allows researchers collecting survey data to reduce them by improving survey design. Our results indicate that survey design should take into account that higher response rates as well as collecting more detailed information may have negative effects on survey accuracy.

Keywords: Measurement error; Welfare programs; Survey methods; Validation; Misreporting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C18 C83 H53 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:econom:v:238:y:2024:i:2:s030440762300297x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2023.105581

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