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Survey mode effects on measured income inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Pirmin Fessler

    (Oesterreichische Nationalbank)

  • Maximilian Kasy

    (Harvard University)

  • Peter Lindner

    (Oesterreichische Nationalbank)

Abstract

We study the effect of interview modes on estimates of economic inequality which are based on survey data. We exploit variation in interview modes in the Austrian EU-SILC panel, where between 2007 and 2008 the interview mode was switched from personal interviews to telephone interviews for some but not all participants. We combine methods from the program evaluation literature with methods from the distributional decomposition literature to obtain causal estimates of the effect of interview mode on estimated inequality. We find that the interview mode has a large effect on estimated inequality, where telephone interviews lead to a larger downward bias. The effect of the mode is much smaller for robust inequality measures such as interquantile ranges, as these are not sensitive to the tails of the distribution. The magnitude of effects we find are of a similar order as the differences in many international and intertemporal comparisons of inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Pirmin Fessler & Maximilian Kasy & Peter Lindner, 2018. "Survey mode effects on measured income inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(4), pages 487-505, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:16:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10888-018-9378-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-018-9378-x
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    2. Martin Ravallion, 2018. "What might explain today's conflicting narratives on global inequality?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-141, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Joseph W. Sakshaug & Jonas Beste & Mark Trappmann, 2023. "Effects of mixing modes on nonresponse and measurement error in an economic panel survey," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. García-Suaza, A & Lobo, J & Montoya, S & Ordóñez, J & Oviedo, J. D, 2022. "Impact of the collection mode on labor income data. A study in the times of COVID19," Documentos de Trabajo 20396, Universidad del Rosario.
    5. Martin Ravallion, 2018. "What might explain today’s conflicting narratives on global inequality?," WIDER Working Paper Series 141, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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