Misreporting of program take-up in survey data and its consequences for measuring non-take-up: new evidence from linked administrative and survey data

• Published in: Empirical economics Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 1567 - 1616
• Main Authors: Bruckmeier, Kerstin, Riphahn, Regina T, Wiemers, Jürgen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer 01.09.2021; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Administrative data; Bias; Data linkage; Econometrics; Economic theory; Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods; Economics; Economics and Finance; Finance; Food stamps; Households; Insurance; Linked Data; Management; Measurement; Misreporting; Polls & surveys; Population; Statistics for Business; Survey data; Take-up; Welfare; Take-up; Welfare; H75; Administrative data; I32; Survey data; Misreporting; C81; Data linkage
• ISSN: 1435-8921; 0377-7332; 1435-8921
• DOI: 10.1007/s00181-020-01921-4

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. In our data, we observe both actual welfare receipt and respondents’ survey information on their program 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 misreporting. This indicates that survey-based analyses of take-up behavior are likely subject to severe biases.