Rotation Group Bias in Reporting of Household Purchases in the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey

Abstract

We find rotation group bias in reports of spending in the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey. Contrary to our expectations, the more waves respondents complete, the higher the quality of their responses. Respondents become more likely to report the amount of money spent on purchases and less likely to report rounded amounts. There is no change over waves in the number of purchases reported or the average amount of money spent on the purchases.

Publication
Economics Letters