Measurement errors: A principal investigator-agent approach

This paper interprets the production of survey data as a labor market under asymmetric information. Measurement errors correspond to erroneous supply of observations by sample members. This paper discusses how to lower measurement errors using incentives that reward sample members for errorless supply and assesses the impact of such incentives on the sampling distributions of common estimators. When measurement errors are elastic with respect to such incentives, the latter can reduce bias even when information from the validation is not used and increase statistical efficiency when it is. We test our results on a survey of US physicians.

[1]  R. Burkhauser,et al.  Measurement Error in Self-reported Health Variables , 1987 .

[2]  Steven Shavell,et al.  The Optimal Tradeoff between the Probability and Magnitude of Fines , 1981 .

[3]  F. S. P. Szuster,et al.  Nonsampling Error in Surveys , 1994 .

[4]  C. Manski.  The Use of Intentions Data to Predict Behavior: A Best-Case Analysis , 1990 .

[5]  D. McFadden.  Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior , 1972 .

[6]  A. Tenenbein.  A Double Sampling Scheme for Estimating from Misclassified Multinomial Data with Applications to Sampling Inspection , 1972 .

[7]  Floyd J. Fowler,et al.  Survey Research Methods , 1984 .

[8]  Peter V. Miller,et al.  A Study of Experimental Techniques for Telephone Interviewing , 1982 .

[9]  Hugh J. Parry,et al.  Validity of Responses to Survey Questions , 1950 .

[10]  Tomas J. Philipson,et al.  Data Markets and the Production of Surveys , 1997 .

[11]  A. Tenenbein.  A Double Sampling Scheme for Estimating from Binomial Data with Misclassifications , 1970 .

[12]  Guido W. Imbens,et al.  Imposing Moment Restrictions from Auxiliary Data by Weighting , 1996, Review of Economics and Statistics.

[13]  Aaron Tenenbein,et al.  On triple sampling scremes for estimating from binomial data with misclassification errors , 1983 .

[14]  John Bound,et al.  Self-Reported Versus Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models , 1991 .

[15]  G. Imbens,et al.  Combining Micro and Macro Data in Microeconometric Models , 1994 .

[16]  D. McFadden.  MEASUREMENT OF URBAN TRAVEL DEMAND , 1974 .

[17]  Arnold Zellner,et al.  Estimating Gross Labor-Force Flows , 1985 .

[18]  Richard V. Burkhauser,et al.  The importance of the measure of health in empirical estimates of the labor supply of older men , 1984 .

[19]  A. Tenenbein.  A Double Sampling Scheme for Estimating from Binomial Data with Misclassifications: Sample size Determination , 1971 .

[20]  J. Berger.  Statistical Decision Theory and Bayesian Analysis , 1988 .

[21]  Greg J. Duncan,et al.  Errors in Survey Reports of Earnings, Hours Worked, and Hourly Wages , 1993 .

[22]  Joel L. Horowitz,et al.  Identification and Robustness with Contaminated and Corrupted Data , 1995 .

[23]  Seymour Sudman,et al.  Measurement errors in surveys , 1993 .

[24]  John B. Lansing,et al.  An investigation of response error 2 , 1961 .

[25]  J. Selen.  Adjusting for errors in classification and measurement in the analysis of partly and purely categorical data , 1986 .

[26]  P. Zarembka.  Frontiers in econometrics , 1973 .

[27]  Robert Ferber,et al.  VALIDATION OF A NATIONAL SURVEY OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS: SAVINGS ACCOUNTS , 1969 .

[28]  Larry V. Hedges,et al.  Subject evaluation in social experiments , 1998 .

[29]  L. J. Savage,et al.  The Foundations of Statistics , 1955 .

[30]  Charles F. Cannell,et al.  Incentives, Motives, and Response Bias , 1974 .