Non-response behaviour in the Bank of Italy�s Survey of Household Income and Wealth

Giovanni D'Alessio and Ivan Faiella

No 462, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: This paper aims to describe non-respondents in the Bank of Italy�s Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) and to measure the underestimation of income and wealth attributable to non-response. The evidence confirms that non-response is not random, since it is more frequent among wealthier households. Therefore exclusive use of poststratification procedures based on demographic characteristics only, which are commonly employed, cannot properly adjust for the selection process observed in the SHIW. As to the estimates of average aggregates, the bias seems to be greater for financial assets (the adjusted estimates are from 15 to 31 per cent higher than the unadjusted) than for income (for which the adjustments vary from 5 to 14 per cent, probably owing to a greater asymmetry in the distribution of wealth.

Keywords: Non-response; non-sampling errors; sample surveys; income; wealth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C42 C81 C93 D31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_462_02

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