Household expenditure surveys : some methodological issues

This working paper (which comprises two parts) is concerned with several methodological aspects of collecting information on household expenditures. Three issues are discussed in the first part: (1) the impact of the length of survey participation on mean and variance of reported income and expenditures; (2) the determinants of survey participation, in particular the decision by household members to fill out expenditure diaries; and (3) the additional reporting which results from household members keeping individual diaries as opposed to one member keeping one household diary book. The second part compares the reliability of two alternative methods to obtain data on expenditures on durables and other infrequently purchased goods and services.