Constructing Cross-Sectional Weights for the German Panel on Household Finances

• Activity Number: 79
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 9, 2015 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Panagiota Tzamourani*
• Companies: Deutsche Bundesbank
• Keywords: Panel survey ; cross-sectional weights ; HFCS ; PHF

Abstract

The paper describes the construction of cross-sectional weights for the second wave of the Panel on Household Finances survey, the German part of the euro area Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Its first wave was conducted in 2010/2011 and its second in 2014, the last including both the respondents of the previous wave and a refresher sample. The construction of cross-sectional weights in a panel survey poses certain challenges as changes in the participating households, changes in the population and panel attrition need to be taken into account. To adjust the weights of the panel households we use a 'base weight' approach as described for example in Verma, Betti and Ghellini (2006). The proposed method relies on the construction of person weights, from which household weights are derived. Non-response adjustments follow, which are carried out separately for the panel, split and refresher samples. At the final stage the three components are merged and their weights are calibrated together.