Journal of Econometrics an Empirical Total Survey Error Decomposition
Journal of Econometrics xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Econometrics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jeconom An empirical total survey error decomposition using data combination ∗ Bruce D. Meyer a,b,c, Nikolas Mittag d, a Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, 1307 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, United States of America b NBER, United States of America c AEI, United States of America d CERGE-EI, joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Politických v¥z¬· 7, Prague 1, 110 00, Czech Republic article info a b s t r a c t Article history: Survey error is known to be pervasive and to bias even simple, but important, estimates Received 16 July 2019 of means, rates, and totals, such as the poverty and the unemployment rate. In order Received in revised form 16 July 2019 to summarize and analyze the extent, sources, and consequences of survey error, we Accepted 5 March 2020 define empirical counterparts of key components of the Total Survey Error Framework Available online xxxx that can be estimated using data combination. Specifically, we estimate total survey Keywords: error and decompose it into three high level sources of error: generalized coverage Total survey error error, item non-response error and measurement error. We further decompose these Administrative data sources into lower level sources such as failure to report a positive amount and errors Measurement error in amounts conditional on reporting a positive value. For errors in dollars paid by two Linked data large government transfer programs, we use administrative records on the universe Data combination of program payments in New York State linked to three major household surveys to estimate the error components previously defined.
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