TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bound,John
AU  - Brown,Charles
AU  - Duncan,Greg J.
AU  - Rodgers,Willard L
TI  - Measurement Error In Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Labor Market Surveys:  Results From Two Validation Studies
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 2884
PY  - 1989
Y2  - March 1989
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2884
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2884.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Bound
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
Tel: 734/998-7149
Fax: 734/998-7415
E-Mail: jbound@umich.edu

Charles C. Brown
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1220
Tel: 734/763-3036
Fax: 734/647-1186
E-Mail: charlieb@umich.edu

Greg Duncan
Northwestern University
E-Mail: gduncan@uci.edu
AB  - This paper reports evidence on the error properties of survey reports of labor market variables such as earnings and work hours. Our primary data source is the PSID Validation Study, a two-wave panel survey of a sample of workers employed by a large firm which also allowed us access to its very detailed records of its workers earnings. etc. The second data source uses individuals' 1977 and 1978 (March Current Population Survey) reports of earnings, matched to Social Security earnings records. In both data sets, individuals: reports of earnings are fairly accurately reported, and the errors are negatively related to true earnings. The latter property reduces the bias due to measurement error when earnings are used as an independent variable, but (unlike the classical-error case) leads to some bias when earnings are the dependent variable. Measurement-error-induced biases when change in earnings is the variable of interest are larger, but not dramatically so. Various measures of hourly earnings were much less reliable than annual earnings. Retrospective reports of unemployment showed considerable under-reporting, even of long spells.
ER  -