MPCs were directly elicited from a representative sample of UK adults in July 2020. Reported MPCs are low, around 11% on average. They are higher, but still modest, for individuals in households with high current needs. These low MPCs may be a consequence of the prevailing economic uncertainty....

Each year the UK records 25,000 or more excess winter deaths, primarily among the elderly. A key policy response is the “Winter Fuel Payment” (WFP), a labelled but unconditional cash transfer to older households. The WFP has been shown to raise fuel spending among eligible households. We...

In this paper we ask whether interviewers influence the answers to a standard set of survey questions on financial literacy. We study data from Germany's wealth survey, Panel on Household Finances (PHF). We have access to extensive paradata, including interviewer identifiers, background...

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...

The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) is the first study of its kind to have asked for permission to link to a range of administrative health records. Multivariate analysis is applied to investigate whether there is consent bias. We find that consent on the BHPS is not biased with respect to...

In the UK, in order to link individual-level administrative records to survey responses, a respondent needs to give their written consent. This paper explores whether characteristics of the respondent, the interviewer or survey design features influence consent. We use the BHPS combined with a...

This paper adds to the literature on the income-health gradient by exploring the association of short- and long-term income with a wide set of self-reported health measures and objective nurse-administered and blood-based biomarkers as well as employing estimation techniques that allow for...

In this paper, using data from Understanding Society over the period 2009-2014, we find that ethnic minorities with lower socio-economic status and those who were born in the UK report worse mental health (GHQ). Those who report experiencing ethnic and racial harassment (ERH) also report worse...

The UK Government enacted simplification of its tax credit system in 2003. An inter- esting consequence of the reform is that tax credit payments were split between partners in couples, causing a rare wallet to purse transfer. This paper presents evidence on the effects of the reform on family...

This paper examines the role of interviewers' experience, attitudes, personality traits and inter-personal skills in determining survey co-operation. We take the perspective that these characteristics influence interviewers' behaviour and hence influence the doorstep interaction between...