Approximations to the truth: comparing survey and microsimulation approaches to measuring income for social indicators

Francesco Figari (), Holly Sutherland, Maria Iacovou and Alexandra Skew

No EM3/10, EUROMOD Working Papers from EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research

Abstract: This paper evaluates income distributions in four European countries (Austria, Italy, Spain and Hungary) using two complementary approaches: a standard approach based on reported incomes in survey data, and a microsimulation approach, where taxes and benefits are simulated. Given that benefit receipts tend to be under-reported in survey data, and over-estimated in microsimulation procedures, we may expect the two approaches to generate slightly different results. In fact, we find reasonably consistent results. To the extent that the results differ, we explore why these differences occur, and suggest directions for future research, where each approach may inform improvements in the other.

Date: 2010-06-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/fi ... s/euromod/em3-10.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Approximations to the Truth: Comparing Survey and Microsimulation Approaches to Measuring Income for Social Indicators (2012)
Working Paper: Approximations to the truth: comparing survey and microsimulation approaches to measuring income for social indicators (2010)
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:ese:emodwp:em3-10

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in EUROMOD Working Papers from EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jonathan Nears ().