Compiling a harmonized database from Germany’s 1978 to 2003 sample surveys of income and expenditure

We outline a procedure for unifying various cross sections of the German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure in a pooled database, and discuss potential pitfalls of such a venture. Particularly, we investigate the consequences of a major break in the survey design for inter-temporal comparabilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv 2013-12, Vol.7 (3-4), p.135-168
Main Authors: Bönke, Timm, Schröder, Carsten, Werdt, Clive
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economics
Finance
Humanities
Insurance
Law
Management
Mathematics and Statistics
Originalveröffentlichung
Statistics
Statistics for Business
Statistics for Social Sciences
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Summary:We outline a procedure for unifying various cross sections of the German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure in a pooled database, and discuss potential pitfalls of such a venture. Particularly, we investigate the consequences of a major break in the survey design for inter-temporal comparability of expenditure distributions: a reduction of the surveying period from twelve to three month taking place between the census years 1993 and 1998. We demonstrate that the shortened survey period impacts the commodity-specific expenditure distributions differently, and that different commodity-specific purchase frequencies are a likely explanation. Moreover, we suggest and empirically assess the suitability of several conversion procedures to ensure comparability of the expenditure distributions before and after the shortening of the surveying period.
ISSN:1863-8155
1863-8163
DOI:10.1007/s11943-013-0134-1