Experimental Tests of Survey Responses to Expenditure Questions

David Comerford, Liam Delaney and Colm Harmon

No 4389, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper tests for a number of survey effects in the elicitation of expenditure items. In particular we examine the extent to which individuals use features of the expenditure question to construct their answers. We test whether respondents interpret question wording as researchers intend and examine the extent to which prompts, clarifications and seemingly arbitrary features of survey design influence expenditure reports. We find that over one quarter of respondents have difficulty distinguishing between "you" and “your household” when making expenditure reports; that respondents report higher pro-rata expenditure when asked to give responses on a weekly as opposed to monthly or annual time scale; that respondents give higher estimates when using a scale with a higher mid-point; and that respondents report higher aggregated expenditure when categories are presented in a disaggregated form. In summary, expenditure reports are constructed using convenient rules of thumb and available information, which will depend on the characteristics of the respondent, the expenditure domain and features of the survey question. It is crucial to further account for these features in ongoing surveys.

Keywords: survey design; expenditure surveys; data experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 C93 D03 D12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2009-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published - published in: Fiscal Studies, 2009, 30 (3-4), 419-433

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Related works:
Journal Article: Experimental Tests of Survey Responses to Expenditure Questions (2009)
Working Paper: Experimental Tests of Survey Responses to Expenditure Questions (2009)
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