Office of Policy Research & Retirement Policy, U.S. Social Security Administration, 500 E. St., SW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20254, United States.
Soc Sci Res. 2013 Mar;42(2):499-512. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.11.004. Epub 2012 Dec 5.
Social science findings routinely rely on proxy-reported economic data in household surveys. A typical assumption is that this information is not biased compared to self-reports, but empirical findings on the issue are mixed. Using a dataset that links workers in the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation to their W-2 tax records, we estimate the effects of reporting status (proxy vs. self) on the magnitude and direction of measurement bias in earnings data and explore whether these effects are heterogeneous across gender and marital status. A slight downward bias in proxy-reported earnings is observed; however, these effects are associated with demographic variables. For married workers, proxies do not contribute substantial bias in earnings measurement regardless of the target respondent's gender. However, for single female workers, proxy interviews are a significant source of downward bias in earnings estimates. The implications of these findings are discussed.
社会科学研究成果通常依赖于家庭调查中的代理报告经济数据。一个典型的假设是，与自我报告相比，这些信息没有偏差，但关于这个问题的实证研究结果是混杂的。本文使用一个数据集，将 2004 年收入和计划参与调查中的工人与其 W-2 纳税记录联系起来，我们估计报告身份（代理与自我）对收入数据测量偏差的大小和方向的影响，并探讨这些影响是否在性别和婚姻状况方面存在异质性。观察到代理报告的收入存在轻微的向下偏差；然而，这些影响与人口统计学变量有关。对于已婚工人，无论目标受访者的性别如何，代理访谈都不会对收入测量产生实质性的偏差。然而，对于单身女性工人来说，代理访谈是收入估计向下偏差的一个重要来源。讨论了这些发现的意义。
