Enhancing the Quality of Data on Income: Recent Developments in Survey Methodology

In this paper, we evaluate two survey innovations aimed at improving income measurement. These innovations are (1) integrating the question sequences for income and wealth which may elicit more accurate estimates of income from capital than has been true in the past, and (2) changes in the periodicity over which income flows are measured, which may provide a closer match between what the survey respondent knows best and the periodicity contained in survey measurement. These innovations have been introduced into both the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the study of Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD). Based on the results reported in this paper, the potential return in quality of income measurement from these innovations is substantial.

Ensuring Time-Series Consistency in Estimates of Income and Wealth

N/A

Improving the Quality of Economic Data: Lessons from the HRS and AHEAD

Missing data are an increasingly important problem in economic surveys, especially when trying to measure household wealth. However, some relatively simple new survey methods such as follow-up brackets appear to appreciably improve the quality of household economic data. Brackets represent partial responses to asset questions and apparently significantly reduce item nonresponse. Brackets also provide a remedy to deal with nonignorable nonresponse bias, a critical problem with economic survey data.

The Measurement and Structure of Household Wealth

This paper deals with methodological issues that arise in measuring household wealth. Two prominent American household surveys--the PSID and SCF--rely on different methodological approaches to the measurement of household wealth. In particular, SCF oversamples high-income households and has a far more extensive set of questions. In the top one percent of the wealth distribution, better measures of wealth are related to over- sampling of very wealthy households and the number of questions that are asked. However, one can characterize total household wealth holdings for the overwhelming majority of households with a relatively moderate number of questions. When successive waves of wealth modules are used to compute savings, the verdict on quality is more cautious, in part due to the inherently lartger role measurement error plays in any first difference formulation.

The Effect of Unfolding Brackets on the Quality of Wealth Data in HRS.

A characteristic feature of survey data on household wealth is the high incidence of missing data—roughly one in three respondents who report owning an asset are unable or unwilling to provide an estimate of the exact amount of their holding. A partial solution to that problem is to devise a series of questions that put the respondent’s holdings into a quantitative range (less than x, more than x, or what?). These quantitative ranges are called unfolding brackets, and they represent a survey innovation that aims to improve the quality of wealth data by substituting range data for completely missing data. In this paper, we examine the effect of unfolding brackets on the quality of HRS wealth data. Special attention is given to the impact of unfolding bracket entry points on the distribution of asset holdings in HRS 1998. Although there is a small positive relationship between mean asset holdings and entry point, there are many cases where that relationship does not hold. In general, our conclusion is that entry point bias problems are not a major concern in the evaluation of quality in the 1998 HRS wealth data.Social Security Administrationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49427/1/wp113.pd

Charge Symmetry Breaking in 500 MeV Nucleon-Trinucleon Scattering

Elastic nucleon scattering from the 3He and 3H mirror nuclei is examined as a test of charge symmetry violation. The differential cross-sections are calculated at 500 MeV using a microsopic, momentum-space optical potential including the full coupling of two spin 1/2 particles and an exact treatment of the Coulomb force. The charge-symmetry-breaking effects investigated arise from a violation within the nuclear structure, from the p-nucleus Coulomb force, and from the mass-differences of the charge symmetric states. Measurements likely to reveal reliable information are noted.Comment: 5 page