We employ a unique dataset of transaction records to analyse whether results of consumer surveys are influenced by the survey setup. We have asked more than 5,000 consumers to report their payments using seven different data collection methods. The results of the seven pilot studies were...

This paper considers data quality issues for the analysis of consumption inequality exploiting two complementary datasets from the Consumer Expenditure Survey for the United States. The Interview sample follows survey households over four calendar quarters and consists of retrospectively asked...

The income of the self-employed is often assumed to be understated in economic statistics. Debate exists about the extent of under-reporting and the resulting measures of the size of the underground economy. This paper refines a method developed by Pissarides and Weber (1989) and uses...

Empirical research based on panel data has to pay special attention to measurement errors. Utility maximization often yields nonlinear decision rules in which measurement errors enter in a multiplicative way. The usual strategy to deal with them consists of taking log-linear approximations of...

There is wide variation in how consumption is measured in household surveys, both across countries and over time. This variation may confound welfare comparisons in part because these alternative survey designs produce consumption estimates differentially influenced by contrasting types of...

Revealed preference tests are widely used in empirical applications of consumer rationality. These are static tests, and consequently, lack ability to handle measurement errors in the data. This paper extends and generalizes existing procedures that account for measurement errors in revealed...

We report results from a validation study of Nielsen Homescan data. We use data from a large grocery chain to match thousands of individual transactions that were recorded by both the retailer (at the store) and the Nielsen Homescan panelist (at home). First, we report how often shopping trips...

Revealed preference tests are widely used in empirical applications of consumer rationality. These are static tests, and consequently, lack ability to handle measurement errors in the data. This paper extends and generalizes existing procedures that account for measurement errors in revealed...

This paper investigates the presence of habit formation in household consumption, using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We develop an econometric model of internal habit formation of the multiplicative specification. The restrictions of the model allow for classical measurement...

Because of limitations in survey-based measures of household consumption, a growing literature uses an alternative measure of consumption commonly referred to as `imputed consumption'. This approach utilizes annual snapshots of household income and wealth from administrative tax registries to...