Retrospective Reporting of Household Wealth: Evidence From the 1983–1989 Survey of Consumer Finances
- 1 October 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Business & Economic Statistics
- Vol. 15 (4) , 452-463
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07350015.1997.10524723
Abstract
One way to obtain panel-like information on household wealth is to ask households about changes in their asset holdings. Yet the reliability of retrospective data is unclear, considering the potential for recall error. This article examines the reliability of retrospective reporting, using data from the 1983–1989 Survey of Consumer Finances. We find substantial inconsistencies between reported net investments in assets with measured changes in holdings. Inconsistencies are less severe for salient transactions like home sales and more severe for aggregated items like financial assets.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evidence on the Validity of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Labor Market DataJournal of Labor Economics, 1994
- The Effects of Estimation Strategies on the Accuracy of Respondents’ Reports of Cigarette SmokingPublished by Springer Nature ,1994
- Errors of Experience: Response Errors in Reports about Child Support and Their Implications for Questionnaire DesignPublished by Springer Nature ,1994
- DIFFERENCES IN THE MEASUREMENT OF WEALTH, WEALTH INEQUALITY AND WEALTH COMPOSITION OBTAINED FROM ALTERNATIVE U.S. WEALTH SURVEYSReview of Income and Wealth, 1991
- MEASURING WEALTH WITH SURVEY DATA: AN EVALUATION OF THE 1983 SURVEY OF CONSUMER FINANCESReview of Income and Wealth, 1988
- Out of Work, Out of Mind: Response Errors in Retrospective Reports of UnemploymentJournal of Business & Economic Statistics, 1988
- Worker Knowledge of Pension ProvisionsJournal of Labor Economics, 1988
- Validation of a National Survey of Consumer Financial Characteristics: Savings AccountsThe Review of Economics and Statistics, 1969
- Validation of Consumer Financial Characteristics: Common StockJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1969
- The Reliability of Consumer Surveys of Financial Holdings: Time DepositsJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1965