Misreporting in household income and expenditure: Evidence from the Chinese Household Income Project

Abstract

This study provides new evidence on misreporting in household income and expenditure using recall and diary data from the 2013 Chinese Household Income Project. Using more accurate diary records as benchmarks, we observe substantial and systematic misreporting in income and expenditure from recall data. Two main patterns of misreporting are identified: mean reversion and correlation with subjective well-being (i.e., happier respondents tend to overreport).