%0 Report %D 2007 %T Enhancing the Quality of Data on the Measurement of Income and Wealth %A Juster, F. Thomas %A Cao, Honggao %A Mick P. Couper %A Daniel H. Hill %A Michael D Hurd %A Joseph P. Lupton %A Michael M. Perry %A James P Smith %K Income %K Methodology %K Net Worth and Assets %X 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). %B Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center Research Paper %I Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center, University of Michigan %C Ann Arbor, MI %G eng %U https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1095815 %L newpubs20070125_Juster_etal_wp151 %4 Methodology/Data Quality/income/Wealth %$ 17010 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Human Resources %D 2003 %T Enhancing the Quality of Data on Income: Recent Innovations from the HRS %A Michael D Hurd %A Juster, F. Thomas %A James P Smith %K Income %K Methodology %X This paper evaluates two survey innovations introduced in the HRS that aimed to improve income measurement. The innovations are (1) the integration of questions for income and wealth and (2) matching the periodicity over which income questions are asked to the typical way such income is received. Both innovations had significant impacts in improving the quality of income reports. For example, the integration of income questions into the asset module produced in HRS an across-wave 63 percent increase in the amount of income derived from financial assets, real estate investments and farm and business equity. Similarly, asking respondents to answer using a time interval consistent with how income is received substantially improved the quality of reports on social security income. Fortunately, we also suggest ways that these innovations can be introduced into other major social science surveys. %B Journal of Human Resources %I 38 %V 38 %P 758-772 %G eng %N 3 %4 HRS content and design/Microeconomic Data Management/Income %$ 8672 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of the American Statistical Association %D 1997 %T Improving the Quality of Economic Data: Lessons from the HRS and AHEAD %A Juster, F. Thomas %A James P Smith %K Methodology %X Missing data are an increasingly important problem in economic surveys, especially when trying to measure household wealth. However, some relatively simple new survey methods such as follow-up brackets appear to appreciably improve the quality of household economic data. Brackets represent partial responses to asset questions and apparently significantly reduce item nonresponse. Brackets also provide a remedy to deal with nonignorable nonresponse bias, a critical problem with economic survey data. %B Journal of the American Statistical Association %I 92 %V 92 %P 1268-78 %G eng %U https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpla/0402010.html %N 440 %L pubs_1997_Juster_FTJAmerStatAssoc.pdf %4 Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology/Microeconomic Data Management/Survey Methods %$ 1010