To Misreport or Not to Report? The Measurement of Household Financial Wealth

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to adjust for the bias due to unit non-response and measurement error in survey estimates of total household financial wealth. Sample surveys are a useful source of information on household wealth. Yet, survey estimates are affected by non-sampling errors. In particular, in the case of household wealth, unit non-response and measurement error can severely bias the estimates. Using the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), we exploit the available auxiliary information in order to assess the magnitude of this bias. We find evidence that for this kind of survey, non-sampling errors are a major issue, possibly more serious than sampling errors. Moreover, in the case of SHIW the potential bias due to measurement error seems to outweigh that induced by non-response.