What Does Variation in Survey Design Reveal about the Nature of Measurement Errors in Household Consumption?

This paper uses data from eight different consumption questionnaires randomly assigned to 4,000 households in Tanzania to obtain evidence on the nature of measurement errors in estimates of household consumption. While there are no validation data,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Gibson, John, Beegle, Kathleen, De Weerdt, Joachim, Friedman, Jed
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS BENCHMARK BIASES CANDLES CIGARETTES COMMODITY CONSUMPTION MEASURE DEMAND FOR FOOD DEPENDENT VARIABLE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT POLICY EARNINGS LEVELS ECONOMETRICS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC REVIEW ECONOMIC STUDIES ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH EMPIRICAL RESULTS ENGEL CURVE ENGEL CURVES EQUATIONS EXPENDITURE DATA EXPLANATORY VARIABLE FOOD ^ CONSUMPTION FOOD CONSUMPTION FOOD DEMAND FOOD RECALL FOODS HIGH CORRELATION HOUSEHOLD BUDGET HOUSEHOLD BUDGET SURVEYS HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HOUSEHOLDS HYPOTHESES INCOME GROWTH INCOME INCREASE INEQUALITY INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLES LABOR ECONOMICS LABOR MARKET LIVING STANDARDS MEASURED CONSUMPTION MEASUREMENT ERROR MEASUREMENT ERRORS NEGATIVE CORRELATION NEGATIVE EFFECT OBSERVED VALUE PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION PERMANENT INCOME POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY RESEARCH POLITICAL ECONOMY POOR COUNTRIES POVERTY REDUCTION PUBLIC GOODS RANDOM ERRORS RELIABILITY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES SIGNIFICANT IMPACT SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE STANDARD ERRORS STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE SUBSTITUTION EFFECT TOTAL CONSUMPTION TOTAL EXPENDITURE
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/17370970/variation-survey-design-reveal-nature-measurement-errors-household-consumption-variation-survey-design-reveal-nature-measurement-errors-household-consumption http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13153

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Summary:	This paper uses data from eight different consumption questionnaires randomly assigned to 4,000 households in Tanzania to obtain evidence on the nature of measurement errors in estimates of household consumption. While there are no validation data, the design of one questionnaire and the resources put into its implementation make it likely to be substantially more accurate than the others. Comparing regressions using data from this benchmark design with results from the other questionnaires shows that errors have a negative correlation with the true value of consumption, creating a non-classical measurement error problem for which conventional statistical corrections may be ineffective.

What Does Variation in Survey Design Reveal about the Nature of Measurement Errors in Household Consumption?

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