Research Reports

The Predictive-Mean Method of Imputation for Preserving Coupling Between Assets and Liabilities

Yves Thibaudeau, Alfred Gottschalck, Thomas Palumbo

KEY WORDS: imputation; hot-deck; predictive mean; wealth.

ABSTRACT

We develop an alternative to the present strategy for imputing the assets and liabilities in the Wealth Topical Module for the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The current strategy is based on a sequential hot-deck methodology. Our alternative imputation strategy emphasizes reproducing the same correlation between the imputed assets and liabilities at the household level as is observed for the reported cases. We propose a joint hot-deck methodology based on the predictive-mean method (Little and Rubin 2002 p. 69). By restoring the correlation to its observed value, the predictive mean method produces estimates of assets and liabilities that lead to a mean household net worth higher than is reported with the present methodology.

CITATION:

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Research Division

Created: October 23, 2006
Last revised: October 23, 2006