The Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF): Description and Methods of the 2014 Wave

Abstract

The Spanish Survey of Household Finances 2014 (EFF2014) provides detailed information on the income, assets, debt and spending of Spanish households referring to end-2014. Together with the previous waves of 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011, the EFF2014 enables the analysis of two complete phases of the economic cycle, which have had a strong impact on the financial position of Spanish households. This paper provides a detailed description of the most relevant methodological aspects in the design and implementation of this fifth 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