TY - CHAP T1 - Consumption and Saving Balances of the Elderly: Experimental Evidence on Survey Response Bias T2 - Frontiers in the Economics of Aging Y1 - 1998 A1 - Michael D Hurd A1 - Daniel McFadden A1 - Chand, Harish A1 - Gan, Li A1 - Merrill, Angela A1 - Michael Ewing Roberts ED - David A Wise KW - Consumption and Savings KW - Methodology AB - A prerequisite for understanding the economic behavior of the elderly, and the impacts of public policy on their health and well-being, is accurate data on key economic variables such as income, consumption, and assets, as well as on expectations regarding future economic and demographic events such as major health costs, disabilities, and death. Standard practice is to elicit such information in economic surveys, relying on respondents’ statements regarding the variables in question. Economists are generally aware that stated responses are noisy. Item nonresponse is a common problem, and carefully done surveys are designed to minimize it. Well-designed analyses of economic survey data are careful about detecting implausible outliers, imputing missing values, and correcting for selection caused by dropping missing observations. Circumstances are recognized that tend to produce systematic biases in response, such as telescoping in recall of past events that arises from the psychophysical perception of time intervals, or overstatement of charitable contributions that arises from the incentive to project a positive self-image. Nevertheless, economic studies are often too sanguine about the reliability of subjects’ statements regarding objective economic data. JF - Frontiers in the Economics of Aging PB - Univ. of Chicago Press CY - Chicago UR - https://www.nber.org/chapters/c7306 N1 - ProCite field 8 : ed. U4 - Consumption/Savings/Survey Methods JO - Consumption and Saving Balances of the Elderly: Experimental Evidence on Survey Response Bias ER -