Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33277 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1624
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We use unique data in which both partners report about household finances to demonstrate that there is often disagreement about whether the household has experienced financial difficulty in the past year. Four alternative explanations for this disagreement are tested using the data. The results indicate that disagreement may be related to the severity of the underlying material hardship rather than to gender differences, information asymmetries, or individual (as opposed to household) views of financial difficulty. This implies that standard surveys which collect information about the household's financial position from a representative individual may fail to completely characterize the nature of material hardship.
Subjects: 
household finances
survey methodology
material hardship
JEL: 
C42
D14
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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