@article {5679, title = {Enhancing the Quality of Data on the Measurement of Income and Wealth}, number = {WP 2007-151}, year = {2007}, institution = {Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center, University of Michigan}, address = {Ann Arbor, MI}, abstract = {Over the last decade or so, a substantial effort has gone into the design of a series of methodological investigations aimed at enhancing the quality of survey data on income and wealth. These investigations have largely been conducted at the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, and have mainly involved two longitudinal surveys: the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), with a first wave beginning in 1992 and continued thereafter every other year through 2004; and the Assets and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study, begun in 1993 and continued in 1995 and 1998, then in every other year through 2004. Surveys for the year 2006 are currently in the field. This paper provides an overview of the main studies and summarizes what has been learned so far. The studies include; a paper by Juster and Smith (Improving the Quality of Economic Data: Lessons from the HRS and AHEAD, JASA, 1997); a paper by Juster, Cao, Perry and Couper (The Effect of Unfolding Brackets on the Quality of Wealth Data in HRS, MRRC Working Paper, WP 2006-113, January 2006); a paper by Hurd, Juster and Smith (Enhancing the Quality of Data on Income: Recent Innovations from the HRS, Journal of Human Resources, Summer 2003); a paper by Juster, Lupton and Cao (Ensuring Time-Series Consistency in Estimates of Income and Wealth, MRRC Working Paper, WP 2002-030, July 2002); a paper by Cao and Juster (Correcting Second-Home Equity in HRS/AHEAD: MRRC Working Paper WP 2004-081, June 2004); and a paper by Rohwedder, Haider and Hurd (RAND Working Paper, 2004).}, keywords = {Income, Methodology, Net Worth and Assets}, url = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1095815}, author = {Juster, F. Thomas and Cao, Honggao and Mick P. Couper and Daniel H. Hill and Michael D Hurd and Joseph P. Lupton and Michael M. Perry and James P Smith} } @article {5649, title = {The Effect of Unfolding Brackets on the Quality of Wealth Data in HRS}, year = {2006}, institution = {The University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center}, abstract = {A characteristic feature of survey data on household wealth is the high incidence of missing data roughly one in three respondents who report owning an asset are unable or unwilling to provide an estimate of the exact amount of their holding. A partial solution to that problem is to devise a series of questions that put the respondent s holdings into a quantitative range (less than x, more than x, or what?). These quantitative ranges are called unfolding brackets, and they represent a survey innovation that aims to improve the quality of wealth data by substituting range data for completely missing data. In this paper, we examine the effect of unfolding brackets on the quality of HRS wealth data. Special attention is given to the impact of unfolding bracket entry points on the distribution of asset holdings in HRS 1998. Although there is a small positive relationship between mean asset holdings and entry point, there are many cases where that relationship does not hold. In general, our conclusion is that entry point bias problems are not a major concern in the evaluation of quality in the 1998 HRS wealth data.}, keywords = {Methodology, Net Worth and Assets}, doi = {10.2139/ssrn.1094805}, author = {Juster, F. Thomas and Cao, Honggao and Michael M. Perry and Mick P. Couper} } @article {5635, title = {Enhancing the Quality of Data on Income and Wealth}, year = {2005}, institution = {The University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center}, abstract = {Over the last decade or so, a substantial effort has gone into the design of a series of methodological investigations aimed at enhancing the quality of survey data on income and wealth. These investigations have largely been conducted at the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, and have mainly involved two longitudinal surveys: the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), with a first wave beginning in 1992 and continued thereafter every other year through 2004; and the Assets and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study, begun in 1993 and continued in 1995 and 1998, then in every other year through 2004. This provides and overview of the main studies and summarizes what has been learned about correcting longitudinal inconsistencies that arise.}, keywords = {Income, Methodology, Net Worth and Assets}, url = {http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/papers/}, author = {Cao, Honggao and Daniel H. Hill and Juster, F. Thomas and Michael M. Perry} } @article {5484, title = {Ensuring Time-Series Consistency in Estimates of Income from Wealth}, year = {2002}, institution = {Ann Arbor, MI, The University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center}, keywords = {Income, Methodology, Net Worth and Assets}, author = {Juster, F. Thomas and Joseph P. Lupton and Cao, Honggao} }