A prospective euro area survey on household finances and consumption: Policy needs and preparatory w

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A prospective euro area survey on household
finances and consumption Policy needs and
preparatory work

• Sébastien Pérez-Duarte joint with Jirka
  Slacalek
• ECB

The 2008 World Congress on National Accounts and
Economic Performance Measures for Nations
() This presentation reflects the views of the
author and not necessarily those of the ECB or of
the members of the Household Finance and
Consumption Survey Network
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Measuring household finances why?

• Aggregate data is not enough for central banks
• Households are heterogeneous, and behave
  heterogeneously
• Distribution of most assets is skewed

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The challenge of the measure of wealth

• The surveys are long (need to collect lots of
  information)
• The surveys touch sensitive issues (wealth, debt,
  income)
• Households do not want to participate
• Households may not want to answer some questions
  which are the ones we want to get
• The households that do not respond are the ones
  we would most want to interview
• The households that would change most the results
  are the ones harder to get

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Policy uses

• Distribution of wealth
• Rising aggregate debt has several possible causes
• Transmission of shocks
• Marginal propensity to consume out of wealth
• Microsimulation
• Model of behaviour of individual entities
• Representative agent not very representative
• Pensions
• Ageing populations
• Pay-as-you-go pension systems

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Central banks and wealth surveys

• Many examples
• US SCF
• Italy SHIW
• Spain EFF
• But also Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal,
• As well as non-central banks
• France
• Finland
• Central banks have particular objectives, and
  there are externalities in the involvement
  (including sample design)

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The Eurosystem network for a wealth survey

• Started in 2006
• Euro area central banks (NCBs and ECB), with some
  national statistical institutes and research
  centres, and three consultants
• Objective launch a euro area wide survey on
  household finance and consumption
• Ensure comparability as much as possible (in
  definitions, design and implementation)

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Strengths and constraints

• Already existing surveys
• Large cross-country differences
• Institutional
• Demographic
• Attitudes to surveys
• Attitudes to wealth

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Blueprint euro area questionnaire

• Assets
• Liabilities
• Consumption
• Income
• Intergenerational transfers
• Attitudes and expectations
• Pension plans
• Employment
• Demographics

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And now

• Before I take your questions, I would like to ask
  a few questions myself
• If you could please tell me, how much is your
  main residence worth?
• Do you have any mortgages taken on this
  residence, and if yes, how much is still owed?
• Do you have any other properties? Please list
  their use and their value, as well as any
  mortgage you could have on them.
• Indicate here all your bank accounts and their
  current balance, as well as any shares and money
  market funds you could have
• Have you been late with your credit card
  payments? Have you been denied credit, or have
  you not applied for credit for fear of being
  turned down?