Investigating the Effects of the Household Budget Survey Redesign on Consumption and Inequality Estimates: The Italian Experience

Abstract

In 2014, many innovations were introduced in the Italian Household Budget Survey (HBS) in response to changes in European recommendations and purchasing behaviours and to an increased demand for information in the context of social and economic research. New instruments and techniques have been introduced, together with more accurate methodologies, with the aim of improving the survey, by both reducing the bias and variance of survey estimates and supplying estimation for additional subpopulations and variables. Given the parallel conduction of the former and new HBS in 2013, it has been possible to evaluate the effects of the abovementioned changes on consumption expenditure and inequality estimates and to compare the sample representativeness of selected subpopulations in both surveys.