Thomas F Crossley
Biographic Data
| ID | 342909 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas F Crossley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas F |
| FAMILY NAME | Crossley |
| SIGNATURE | CROSSLEY T F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute for Fiscal Studies |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0952-7450 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How Different Mixed-Mode Data Collection Approaches Impact Response Rates and Provision of Biomeasure Samples
Social surveys can be enriched with the collection of objective health measures, allowing new types of research in both health and social sciences. We experimentally tested three alternative designs for collecting survey responses and biomeasures within a longitudinal survey. In the nurse-administered design, a nurse conducts the survey and collects biomeasures in person. In the interviewer-first design, an interviewer initially attempts to carry…
How Do Survey Respondents Decide Whether to Consent to Data Linkage
Linkages between surveys and administrative data provide an important opportunity for social and health research, but such linkages often require the informed consent of respondents. We use experimental data collection across five different samples to study how consent decisions are made. More reflective decision processes are associated with higher rates of consent, greater comprehension of the proposed data linkage, and greater confidence in th…
Regression with an imputed dependent variable
Researchers are often interested in the relationship between two variables, with no single data set containing both. A common strategy is to use proxies for the dependent variable that are common to two surveys to impute the dependent variable into the data set containing the independent variable. We show that commonly employed regression or matching‐based imputation procedures lead to inconsistent estimates. We offer a consistent and easily impl…
A comparison of recall and diary food expenditure data
Recall food expenditure data, which is the basis of a great deal of empirical work, is believed to suffer from considerable measurement error. Diary records are believed to be more accurate. We study an unusual data set that collects recall and diary data from the same households and so allows a direct comparison of the two methods of data collection. The diary data imply measurement errors in recall food expenditure data that are substantial, an…
Can Survey Participation Alter Household Saving Behaviour
We document an effect of survey participation on household saving. Identification comes from random assignment to modules within a population‐representative Internet panel. The saving measure is based on linked administrative wealth data. Households that responded to a detailed questionnaire on needs in retirement reduced their non‐housing saving rate by 3.5 percentage points, on a base of 1.5%. The survey may have acted as a salience shock, poss…
First‐time House Buying and Catch‐up: A Cohort Study
We investigate whether different ages of first‐time house buying lead to persistent differences in homeownership between cohorts. Our data span nearly 40 years and multiple cycles of England's volatile house prices. Ownership rates at thirty have differed substantially, with a significant negative association with prices. The persistence of differences is assessed using synthetic cohort techniques. Two methods of dealing with measurement error pr…
Job Loss, Credit Constraints, and Consumption Growth
We use direct evidence on credit constraints to study their importance for household consumption growth and for welfare. We distentangle the direct effect on consumption growth of a currently binding credit constraint from the indirect effect of a potentially binding credit constraint that generates consumption risk. Our data are focused on job losers. We find that less than 5% of job losers experience a binding credit constraint, but those who d…
Pension Benefit Insurance and Pension Plan Portfolio Choice
Pension benefit guarantees have been introduced in several countries to protect private plan members from the loss of income associated with the termination of an underfunded plan. Most such schemes face financial difficulty. Consequently, policy reforms are being contemplated. Economic theory suggests that such schemes will suffer moral hazard problems. We test a specific theoretical prediction: insured plans will invest more heavily in risky as…
Inference with Difference-in-Differences Revisited
The Common-Scaling Social Cost-of-Living Index
If preferences or budgets are heterogeneous across people (as they clearly are), then individual cost-of-living indexes are also heterogeneous. Thus, any social cost-of-living index faces an aggregation problem. In this article, we provide a solution to this problem that we call a “common-scaling” social cost-of-living index (CS-SCOLI). In addition, we describe nonparametric methods for estimating such social cost-of-living indexes. As an applica…
Private Pensions and Income Security in Old Age: An Uncertain Future Introduction
THOMAS F. CROSSLEY Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK, Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Program BYRON G. SPENCER Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Research Institute for Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population, and Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Program
Les régimes de retraite privés et de sécurité du revenu à la retraite: Un avenir incertain Introduction
The Adequacy of Retirement Savings: Subjective Survey Reports by Retired Canadians
We examine retired Canadians’ subjective survey reports of satisfaction with finances, and with life, relative to the period before retirement. Many more retired Canadians report enjoying life more than before retirement than the converse, and in 2002 three-quarters of retired Canadians reported being either as satisfied or more satisfied with their finances than they were in the year prior to retirement. The most significant correlate of financi…
Les régimes de retraite privés et de sécurité du revenu à la retraite: Un avenir incertain Introduction
Private Pensions and Income Security in Old Age: An Uncertain Future Introduction
Asking Consumption Questions in General Purpose Surveys
In many research areas it is desirable to have information on household total expenditure (‘consumption’). We draw evidence from several sources on the usefulness of recall consumption questions. We conclude that valid information can be collected by adding specific recall questions to general purpose surveys, and provide recommendations on how to do so
The reliability of self-assessed health status
The Life-Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving
A central implication of life-cycle models is that agents smooth consumption. We review the empirical evidence on smoothing at frequencies from within the year up to across a lifetime. We find that life-cycle models--particular those which incorporate realistic features of markets and goods--have more empirical successes than failures. We also show that some apparent deviations from theoretical predictions imply very small welfare losses for agen…
Luxuries Are Easier to Postpone: A Proof
We show that (Marshallian) income elasticities are proportional to (Frisch) own price elasticities if all goods are additively separable. This implies that luxuries are likely to be easier to postpone. It also implies that preferences over "consumption" are unlikely to display a constant elasticity of substitution
The Life-Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving
A central implication of life-cycle models is that agents smooth consumption. We review the empirical evidence on smoothing at frequencies from within the year up to across a lifetime. We find that life-cycle models--particular those which incorporate realistic features of markets and goods--have more empirical successes than failures. We also show that some apparent deviations from theoretical predictions imply very small welfare losses for agen…
Asking Consumption Questions in General Purpose Surveys
In many research areas it is desirable to have information on household total expenditure (‘consumption’). We draw evidence from several sources on the usefulness of recall consumption questions. We conclude that valid information can be collected by adding specific recall questions to general purpose surveys, and provide recommendations on how to do so
Can Survey Participation Alter Household Saving Behaviour
We document an effect of survey participation on household saving. Identification comes from random assignment to modules within a population‐representative Internet panel. The saving measure is based on linked administrative wealth data. Households that responded to a detailed questionnaire on needs in retirement reduced their non‐housing saving rate by 3.5 percentage points, on a base of 1.5%. The survey may have acted as a salience shock, poss…
A comparison of recall and diary food expenditure data
Recall food expenditure data, which is the basis of a great deal of empirical work, is believed to suffer from considerable measurement error. Diary records are believed to be more accurate. We study an unusual data set that collects recall and diary data from the same households and so allows a direct comparison of the two methods of data collection. The diary data imply measurement errors in recall food expenditure data that are substantial, an…
Luxuries Are Easier to Postpone: A Proof
We show that (Marshallian) income elasticities are proportional to (Frisch) own price elasticities if all goods are additively separable. This implies that luxuries are likely to be easier to postpone. It also implies that preferences over "consumption" are unlikely to display a constant elasticity of substitution
Private Pensions and Income Security in Old Age: An Uncertain Future Introduction
Luxuries Are Easier to Postpone: A Proof
We show that (Marshallian) income elasticities are proportional to (Frisch) own price elasticities if all goods are additively separable. This implies that luxuries are likely to be easier to postpone. It also implies that preferences over "consumption" are unlikely to display a constant elasticity of substitution
The Life-Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving
A central implication of life-cycle models is that agents smooth consumption. We review the empirical evidence on smoothing at frequencies from within the year up to across a lifetime. We find that life-cycle models--particular those which incorporate realistic features of markets and goods--have more empirical successes than failures. We also show that some apparent deviations from theoretical predictions imply very small welfare losses for agen…
The reliability of self-assessed health status
Asking Consumption Questions in General Purpose Surveys
In many research areas it is desirable to have information on household total expenditure (‘consumption’). We draw evidence from several sources on the usefulness of recall consumption questions. We conclude that valid information can be collected by adding specific recall questions to general purpose surveys, and provide recommendations on how to do so
Private Pensions and Income Security in Old Age: An Uncertain Future Introduction
THOMAS F. CROSSLEY Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK, Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Program BYRON G. SPENCER Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Research Institute for Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population, and Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Program
Les régimes de retraite privés et de sécurité du revenu à la retraite: Un avenir incertain Introduction
The Adequacy of Retirement Savings: Subjective Survey Reports by Retired Canadians
We examine retired Canadians’ subjective survey reports of satisfaction with finances, and with life, relative to the period before retirement. Many more retired Canadians report enjoying life more than before retirement than the converse, and in 2002 three-quarters of retired Canadians reported being either as satisfied or more satisfied with their finances than they were in the year prior to retirement. The most significant correlate of financi…
Les régimes de retraite privés et de sécurité du revenu à la retraite: Un avenir incertain Introduction
Private Pensions and Income Security in Old Age: An Uncertain Future Introduction
The Common-Scaling Social Cost-of-Living Index
If preferences or budgets are heterogeneous across people (as they clearly are), then individual cost-of-living indexes are also heterogeneous. Thus, any social cost-of-living index faces an aggregation problem. In this article, we provide a solution to this problem that we call a “common-scaling” social cost-of-living index (CS-SCOLI). In addition, we describe nonparametric methods for estimating such social cost-of-living indexes. As an applica…
Pension Benefit Insurance and Pension Plan Portfolio Choice
Pension benefit guarantees have been introduced in several countries to protect private plan members from the loss of income associated with the termination of an underfunded plan. Most such schemes face financial difficulty. Consequently, policy reforms are being contemplated. Economic theory suggests that such schemes will suffer moral hazard problems. We test a specific theoretical prediction: insured plans will invest more heavily in risky as…
Inference with Difference-in-Differences Revisited
Job Loss, Credit Constraints, and Consumption Growth
We use direct evidence on credit constraints to study their importance for household consumption growth and for welfare. We distentangle the direct effect on consumption growth of a currently binding credit constraint from the indirect effect of a potentially binding credit constraint that generates consumption risk. Our data are focused on job losers. We find that less than 5% of job losers experience a binding credit constraint, but those who d…
First‐time House Buying and Catch‐up: A Cohort Study
We investigate whether different ages of first‐time house buying lead to persistent differences in homeownership between cohorts. Our data span nearly 40 years and multiple cycles of England's volatile house prices. Ownership rates at thirty have differed substantially, with a significant negative association with prices. The persistence of differences is assessed using synthetic cohort techniques. Two methods of dealing with measurement error pr…
A comparison of recall and diary food expenditure data
Recall food expenditure data, which is the basis of a great deal of empirical work, is believed to suffer from considerable measurement error. Diary records are believed to be more accurate. We study an unusual data set that collects recall and diary data from the same households and so allows a direct comparison of the two methods of data collection. The diary data imply measurement errors in recall food expenditure data that are substantial, an…
Can Survey Participation Alter Household Saving Behaviour
We document an effect of survey participation on household saving. Identification comes from random assignment to modules within a population‐representative Internet panel. The saving measure is based on linked administrative wealth data. Households that responded to a detailed questionnaire on needs in retirement reduced their non‐housing saving rate by 3.5 percentage points, on a base of 1.5%. The survey may have acted as a salience shock, poss…
Regression with an imputed dependent variable
Researchers are often interested in the relationship between two variables, with no single data set containing both. A common strategy is to use proxies for the dependent variable that are common to two surveys to impute the dependent variable into the data set containing the independent variable. We show that commonly employed regression or matching‐based imputation procedures lead to inconsistent estimates. We offer a consistent and easily impl…
How Different Mixed-Mode Data Collection Approaches Impact Response Rates and Provision of Biomeasure Samples
Social surveys can be enriched with the collection of objective health measures, allowing new types of research in both health and social sciences. We experimentally tested three alternative designs for collecting survey responses and biomeasures within a longitudinal survey. In the nurse-administered design, a nurse conducts the survey and collects biomeasures in person. In the interviewer-first design, an interviewer initially attempts to carry…
How Do Survey Respondents Decide Whether to Consent to Data Linkage
Linkages between surveys and administrative data provide an important opportunity for social and health research, but such linkages often require the informed consent of respondents. We use experimental data collection across five different samples to study how consent decisions are made. More reflective decision processes are associated with higher rates of consent, greater comprehension of the proposed data linkage, and greater confidence in th…
Economics (11 works) · Mathematics (10 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Econometrics (7 works) · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Statistics (7 works) · Retirement, Disability, and Employment (6 works) · Demographic economics (5 works) · Economics of Agriculture and Food Markets (5 works)