The Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF): Description and Methods of the 2017 Wave

Abstract

The Spanish Survey of Household Finances 2017 (EFF2017) provides detailed information on the income, assets, debt and spending of Spanish households referring to end-2017. Together with the previous waves of 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014, the EFF2017 enables the analysis of several phases of the recent economic cycle and of the related developments in Spanish households’ financial position. This paper provides a detailed description of the most relevant methodological aspects in the design and implementation of this sixth edition: the sample design, the questionnaire, the data collection process, the validation of the data, the computation of weights and the imputation procedures. Important characteristics also present in this wave are the oversampling of wealthy households and the panel component of the sample.

Keywords: wealth survey, oversampling of the rich, panel, refreshment sample, data collection, imputation, weights

JEL Classification: C81, D31