Survey response in probabilistic questions and its impact on inference

Jochem de Bresser and Arthur van Soest ()

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2013, vol. 96, issue C, 65-84

Abstract: We develop a panel data model of expectations of a continuous outcome variable elicited on a percentage-chance scale. The model explains the location and dispersion of the subjective distributions by socio-economic covariates and unobserved factors. Moreover, it accounts explicitly for non-response, non-informative focal answers, and recall and rounding errors. We apply the model to the expected retirement income replacement rate of Dutch wage workers. We find that incorporating these features of the answering process increases the size and significance of relationships with covariates. The estimates indicate substantial rounding but few focal answers. Respondents tend to stick to a certain answering strategy: non-response, rounding and especially non-informative focal answers are characterized by substantial unobserved heterogeneity across individuals.

Keywords: Expectations; Survey response; Rounding; Recall error; Unobserved heterogeneity; Aging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 D84 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268113002448
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:96:y:2013:i:c:p:65-84

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2013.09.012

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().