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AHS: Evaluation of 2005 Changes to Income Questions

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A new report, "Evaluation of the 2005 Changes in the AHS Income
Questionnaire," has been posted to the AHS HUD USER web site.  You can
download it in PDF form from the "TECHNICAL SUPPLEMENTS" section of
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahs.html .

As the Census Bureau's Scott Susin writes in the report,

"After redesigning the American Housing Survey (AHS) in 1997, the Census
Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development compared the
income data collected in that survey with those found in the Current
Population Survey (CPS). That study found that the AHS reported fewer
households with non-wage income than the CPS and that AHS respondents
tended to report self-employment income as wages. In addition, AHS data
users requested that disability-related income sources be reported
separately from other sources, to make it easier to count the number of
households with disabled persons.

"The 2005 American Housing Survey addressed these findings and requests
by adopting a series of income questions similar to the questions used
in the American Community Survey (ACS).2 Prior to 2005, respondents were
asked the wages and salaries of each person in the family, and all other
sources of income were collected as a single amount for the family as a
whole. The 2005 questions collected an amount for each person in the
family from nine different types of income (such as wages and salaries
or social security). In addition, for each non-relative (a person not
related to the householder), the 2005 questionnaire was changed to ask
about wages, self-employment, and other income separately. Prior to
2005, non-relatives were asked only to report their total income."

This report examines the results of these changes, comparing 2005 AHS
income measures with the 2003 AHS numbers and with those of the ACS and
the CPS.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Senior Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david.a.vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-402-5890