Prati, Alberto;
(2017)
Hedonic recall bias. Why you should not ask people how much they earn.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
, 143
pp. 78-97.
10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.002.
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Abstract
The empirical literature which explores the effect of wage on job satisfaction typically uses data drawn from social surveys. In these surveys, the amount of wage is reported by the respondents themselves: thus, the explanatory variable of the econometric models may differ from the true wage people earn. Our paper shows that the use of survey data can lead to considerable over-estimation of the importance of wage as a determinant of wage satisfaction. In particular, responses seem to be affected by a recall bias: people who are satisfied with their wage are more likely to over-report their wage in questionnaires. The more satisfied they are the more they over-report (and vice versa unsatisfied people). We name this behavioral disposition “hedonic recall bias”.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Hedonic recall bias. Why you should not ask people how much they earn |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.002 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.002 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Recall bias, Job satisfaction, Wage satisfaction, Measurement error, Survey income |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10198982 |
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