Compiling a harmonized database from Germany's 1978 to 2003 sample surveys of income and expenditure

Timm Bönke, Carsten Schröder and Clive Werdt

No 2010/4, Discussion Papers from Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics

Abstract: We outline a procedure for combining six cross-sections of the German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure, and discuss potential pitfalls of such a venture. Particularly, we investigate the consequences of a major break in the survey design for inter-temporal comparisons of expenditure categories: a reduction of the surveying period from twelve to three month taking place between the census years 1993 and 1998. We demonstrate that for several commodities a division-by-four of annually-surveyed expenses cannot guarantee inter-temporal comparability of expenditure distributions. We suggest and test the performance of several alternative conversion procedures. Suitability of conversion strategies hinges upon good-specific purchase properties.

Keywords: German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure; annual vs. trimestrial data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C8 D1 D3 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Compiling a harmonized database from Germany’s 1978 to 2003 sample surveys of income and expenditure (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20104

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