Benefit underreporting in survey data and its consequences for measuring non-take-up : new evidence from linked administrative and survey data

The international literature studies non-take-up behavior of eligible populations to evaluate the effectiveness of government programs. A major challenge in this literature is the measurement error regarding benefit take-up. Measurement error is typically addressed by structural assumptions in the modeling framework. In our data, we observe both actual welfare receipt and respondents' survey information on their take-up. This allows us to observe the measurement errors that other researchers must estimate. We describe survey misreporting and investigate how it biases the estimates of the magnitude and patterns of benefit take-up among eligible households. Our findings suggest that the extent of measurement error can be substantial. It varies with the characteristics of the misreporting population and is associated with the drivers of underreporting. This indicates that survey-based analyses of take-up behavior are likely subject to severe biases.