Income source confusion using the SILC

Christopher Bollinger and Iva Tasseva

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We use a unique panel of household survey data—the Austrian version of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2008–2011—which have been linked to individual administrative records on both state unemployment benefits and earnings. We assess the extent and structure of misreporting across similar benefits and between benefits and earnings. We document that many respondents fail to report participation in one or more of the unemployment programs. Moreover, they inflate earnings for periods when they are unemployed but receiving unemployment compensation. To demonstrate the impact of income source confusion on estimators, we estimate standard Mincer wage equations. Since unemployment is associated with lower education, the reports of unemployment benefits as earnings bias downward the returns to education. Failure to report unemployment benefits also leads to substantial sample bias when selecting on these benefits, as one might in estimating the returns to job training.

JEL-codes: J01 J1 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2023-09-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Public Opinion Quarterly, 4, September, 2023, 87(S1), pp. 542 – 574. ISSN: 0033-362X

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119351/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Income source confusion using the SILC (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:119351

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