Household income by socio-occupational category

Abstract

Accounts by socio-occupational category are a very good example of the relationship between macro-economic data based on the national accounting system and micro-economic data obtained from household surveys. Every five years since 1956 French statisticians have tried to break down the household income account into eight subgroups according to the socio-occupational category to which the head of household belongs. They use more than 150 distribution keys coming from various household surveys (health, housing, consumption) and from a specific taxable income survey con­ ducted especially with the income tax authorities for this purpose and thought to provide better infor­ mation than an ordinary household survey. The expectations of users and technological advances in data analysis and collection have stimulat­ ed new developments: (i) an updating method has been implemented to produce more recent ac­ counts; (ii) income accounts are also calculated according to family size and income level; (iii) alterna­ tive definitions of disposable income can be evaluated, such as discretionary income and pre-allocated income, broadening the concept of disposable income by including the counterparts of the individualized final consumption expenditure of Government bodies. In most countries, the income of household categories is evaluated on the basis of average and distribution, through both surveys among households and tax statistics. But it appears that only France breaks down the income evaluated in the national accounts by household category in order to obtain an additional measure of their income which is consistent with macro-economic data. And France has done so for over 20 years. For this breakdown, a unique instrument has been deve­ loped: the tax survey, a third statistical source which, by comparison with the other two, is much more complete and detailed.