Seminario “Money and lies: proxy respondents and the mismeasurement of income in surveys"

Miércoles 11/9, 17.15h

Presentado por Maria Lombardi
Abstract
When sampled individuals are not found at home, many surveys rely on a proxy respondent: another knowledgeable household member. We study the effect of proxy reporting on the measurement of labor income in Mexico. For identification, we use the panel structure of the Mexican labor force survey and compare workers’ income when they report it themselves to their income when another household member does the reporting. We find that the monthly wage of male workers is 6.1% lower when reported by a proxy. For female workers, the reporting gap is minute. We provide evidence that the gap in the reported income of male workers is due to asymmetry of information within the household, in part due to men hiding income from their relatives. Finally, we study the implications of using proxy respondents and find that it can lead to an underestimation of the gender wage gap by 60%..

Maria Lombardi
Doctorado en Economía en la Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
Profesora en la Escuela de Gobierno de la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella e investigadora en CEPE Di Tella. Antes de incorporarse a la Di Tella, trabajó como profesora e investigadora en la Universidad de Gotemburgo. Su investigación se enfoca en estudiar el impacto de políticas públicas en países en desarrollo, principalmente en el sector educativo.

Lugar: Aula Magna, Campus Di Tella
Contacto: Departamento de Economía