The Reliability of Retrospective Data on Asset Ownership as a Measure of Past Household Wealth

Bibliographic Data

ID2407455
AuthorsKatrina Mullan (0000-0003-0906-9269, University of Montana, corresponding author), Erin Sills (North Carolina State University), Erin O Sills (0000-0001-8289-0489, North Carolina State University), Simone Bauch (Inter-American Development Bank, Brasília, Brazil)
Year2014
Volume26
Issue3
Pages223-238
Publication date2014-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCAM (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1087-8513 • E-ISSN: 1552-3969
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1525822x13510370
OpenAlexW2100115491
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited27

Asset ownership is frequently used to assess the welfare status of households in rural areas of developing countries. Researchers often want to know the prior status of households or how that status has changed over time. In a case study in the Brazilian Amazon, we compare recall data with contemporary reports on assets from a panel survey. We consider multiple dimensions of the consistency of retrospective and contemporary data and seek to identify characteristics that lead to more accurate recall. We find that although retrospective data provide some information on past assets owned by households, they do not provide a highly accurate measure of either individual asset ownership or counts of types of assets owned. Consistent with previous studies, we find that items with greater salience are recalled more accurately. We also find that wealthier households exhibit upward bias when recalling assets owned in a previous period

Actuarial science · Asset (computer security) · Business · Econometrics · Economics · Recall · Salience (neuroscience) · Statistics · Survey data collection · Welfare · Agricultural risk and resilience · Computer Science · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology

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