Official name of the survey/data source:
L'Indagine Campionaria sui Bilanci delle Famiglie Italiane.

LIS name:
The Bank of Italy Income Survey

Administrative unit responsible for the survey:
Ufficio Informazioni Statistiche (Statistical Information Office) of the Bank of Italy.

Address:

Funding for the Survey of Italian Family Income is provided for by the Banca d'Italia, a public financial institution. Copies of the original codebook and other documentation can be obtained from the Ufficio Informazioni Statistiche at the above address.

The principle users of the data collected in this survey are the Bank of Italy, academic researchers, government departments, and ISPE.

The Bank of Italy Income Study is conducted every year. However, the survey was not carried out for the years 1985 and 1988. The first year in which the survey was conducted was 1965, and was first made available as microdata in 1977.

The main purpose of the Bank of Italy Income Survey is to provide information on the economic activities of Italian families, with particular emphasis being placed on obtaining information on family income and real estate holdings.

Prior to 1984, the Bank of Italy Income Survey sample was extracted from Italian electoral lists. However, beginning with the 1984 survey a different sampling frame was used. Families to be interviewed were instead selected from household address lists (General Population Registers) held by regional registry offices. This was done in order to minimize sample selection bias in favor of larger families, which tend to have more members enrolled in the electoral list, thus having a higher probability of selection than smaller families. (Detailed information on the sampling frame can be found in Section III.B.1.) Because of this change in the sampling frame, caution should be exercised when comparing the pre- and post-1984 Bank of Italy surveys.

The process of data collection for the 1986 Bank of Italy  Income Study was begun in January 1987 and completed (see note 1) in February 1987; the information being collected retrospectively for 1986.

Use of this data is restricted. Users of the data must not disclose information which would allow individuals or families to be identified. No other special restrictions apply to LIS users.

A bibliography of the most important publications based on the Bank of Italy Income Survey is provided in the bibliography in Section N. Also included in the bibliography in Section N is a list of available user documentation for the Bank of Italy Survey.

Note: 

1. This time period does not include data processing or other survey operations.

B. POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE, SAMPLING METHODS back

A three stage stratified sample design is employed in the Bank of Italy Income Survey. The first stage primary sampling units are comprised of 51 municipalities for 172 regions of Italy. Within each region municipalities are stratified by size according to the following criteria:

1. municipalities of more than 40,000 inhabitants
2. municipalities of between 20,000 and 40,000 inhabitants
3. municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants

All municipalities of more than 40,000 inhabitants were included in the first stage sample, whereas all other municipalities (those with between 20,000 and 40,000, and those with less than 20,000 inhabitants) were randomly selected with a probability proportional to the size of the municipality. A second stratification factor was used for municipalities in group 3, based on the prevalent level and type of economic activity of the population in each municipality. At the third stage addresses were selected from each municipality which fell into the sample. The General Population Register was used as the third stage sampling frame.

The sampling frame which was employed in this survey did not include that segment of the institutionalized population resident in nursing homes for the aged or ill, prisons, or military installations. Military personnel living in military installations were not listed in the sampling frame, however, military personnel living with their families were included.

Groups such as the foreign-born, or others having some predetermined characteristic, were not excluded from the sample at the time of interview.

There were a total of 20,100,00 units in the population from which the sample was selected. The total number of units which were actually surveyed was 8,022. This was the same sample that was made available to LIS. Approximately 5,000 survey units which fell into the sample were not interviewed, or for which no information was obtained.

All geographic areas in the country were included in the sample design.

Estimates of sampling variability (standard errors) have been computed for this survey (see note 3).

Note: 

2. The following regions were collapsed into three separate strata: Piemonte and Val d'Aosta; Abruzzi and Molise; Basilicata and Calabria.
3 See "I bilanci delle famiglie italiane nell'anno 1986," in Estratto del Bollettino Statistico, Numero 1-2, Gennaio-Giugno 1987, p. 331

C. MEASURES OF DATA QUALITY back

1. Item and Group Nonresponse Rates

The overall non-response rate for the 1986 Bank of Italy Income Survey was approximately 38.5%, which represents a total of approximately 5,000 cases from a total sample of approximately 13,000 survey units. A breakdown of the non-response rates by socio-economic class are not available for the 1986 survey.

However, response rates by socio-economic class are available for 1982. These are reported in Table 7.1.

 Table 7.1:
Response Rates by Socio-Economic Class 1982*Uninterviewed Total class interviewed Families

* Taken from "Le indagini campionarie sui bilanci delle famiglie italiane," in Analisi Economica, 1986, p. 118

2. Reporting and Under-Reporting and Income Data Quality

An evaluation of the quality of the income data has been made by comparing the 1982 Bank of Italy Income Survey data with Italian National Accounts. For this year, average family income as measured by the Bank of Italy was 7.7% less than that reported by the national accounts. (see note 4) However, this may be due to different definitions of income which were employed by the two sources. The 1986 income data have been compared with ISTAT data for the same year. For this year average income in the Bank of Italy survey data was estimated at 21,036,000 lire, whereas ISTAT estimated it to be 19,692,000 lire (a difference of 6.4%).

An evaluation of the quality of tax, demographic, wealth, expenditure and other data has been made comparing the Bank of Italy data with data from ISTAT.5 For size of family, number of income recipients per family, and age distribution in the surveys, most estimates from the two sources were similar. In addition, the occupational distribution of household heads is similar for both sources.

Internal edits, and checks for consistency errors in the data have been carried out for this survey.

Note:

4. "Le indagini campionarie sui bilanci delle famiglie italiane," in Analisi Economiche, 1986, p. 121

3. Data Corrections and Adjustments

Adjustments to the original data have been performed in order to improve data quality. The adjustments were made by replacing missing values with sub-sample means to estimate income and wealth. No other adjustments were made for non-response, nor were any values simulated or imputed.

4. General Assessment of Income Data Quality

The main problem regarding the quality of the income data collected in this survey is an under-representation of persons with more than one job.

D. DATA COLLECTION AND ACQUISITION back

1. Method of Data Collection

The data were collected via a personal visit by a trained interviewer. All schedules were completed by the interviewer. In addition, before the beginning of the interview the interviewer was required to provide a subjective assessment of the social class of the family to be interviewed. This data was used to obtain estimates of non-response rates by social class (see Section C above).

5 "I bilanci delle famiglie italiane nell'anno 1986,"Bollettino Statistico, 1987, pp. 332-333  

2. Structure of the Survey Instrument

Two survey instruments were used for this survey. One for the head of household, and a second instrument for each household member who had received any income during 1986.

3. Survey Respondent Rules

Although each income recipient was asked to complete an income schedule, the head of household was asked to provide information for absent household members.

Respondents were not asked to consult or use pay records, tax returns, or other documents when providing income information.

Participation in the survey was voluntary, and respondents were informed before the beginning of the interview that they could refuse to answer any of the questions.

E. WEIGHTING PROCEDURES back

Survey weights have been assigned to each sample case. These weights were assigned in order to adjust for survey units that were selected but not interviewed. These weighting procedures did not help adjust for missing data or other nonsampling errors related to the income data. The sum of the survey weights is equal to the total number of sampled units.

F. DETERMINATION OF SURVEY UNIT MEMBERSHIP back

In order to be considered a member of the survey unit, household members must live together. However, people who live together solely for economic reasons are not considered household members. Consequently, households are defined in terms of family relationships.

Other than the sampling unit head, spouses, children and other relatives can be identified.

The basic unit of aggregation which was used in this survey was families.

The overall sampling unit cannot be divided into subgroups in those situations where several families share the same housing unit.

The survey unit head is usually the husband or father, but if he is abroad or in another region of Italy the household head is the person who is economically responsible for the family.

G. CHILDREN AND SPOUSES back

In this survey information such as age and relationship to head is available, however, no specific rule is used to define children.

The survey does not provide information to distinguish between children of the unit head (or spouse), and children of some other household member, or of someone living outside the household.

In this survey spouses are defined as the legal marriage partner of the household head.

H. AVAILABILITY OF BASIC SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION back

In Table 3 are summarized the basic social and demographic information which is available in the Bank of Italy Income Survey.

Table 3:
Basic Social and Demographic Information.

I. AVAILABILITY OF LABOUR MARKET INFORMATION back

Labor force status information is available for this survey. No groups were excluded at the time of interview through filter questions relating to the employment status of the respondent, although only income recipients were requested to provide answers to the income schedule. The labor market information which is available in the survey is summarized in Table 4.

Table 4:
Labor Market Information.

J. AVAILABILITY OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION back

It is possible to identify the geographic region of Italy of respondents. No other geographic information is available.

K. SOURCES AND AMOUNTS OF CASH INCOME back

Sources and amounts of income from employment are available for the entire year only. For pensions monthly amounts are available. In both cases the amounts received are actual amounts.

L. TAXES back

Taxation information is not available for this survey.

M. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MAIN PUBLICATIONS back

Biggeri, L. 1976. "L'adeguatezza delle informazioni statistiche sulla distribuzione personale dei redditi in Italia." In Atti del III Convegno di Contabilit… Nazionale, ISCONA

D'Apice, C. 1977. "La distribuzione dei redditi nelle indagine campionarie della Banca d'Italia." In Politica ed Economia, n. 2-3

Bianchi, G. 1978. "Le indagini della Banca d'Italia sulla distribuzione dei redditi, del risparmio e della richezza." In Economia del Lavoro, n. 1

Lemmi, A. 1981. "Un tentativo di confronto aggregato tra le stime del reddito familiare della Banca d'Italia e i valori della contabilit… nazionale, nel periodo 1970-1978." In Monte dei Paschi di Siena: Note Economiche, n. 2

Banca d'Italia, Servizio Studi. 1983. "L'indagine campionaria sui bilanci delle famiglie italiane. Nota metodologica." In Bolletino Statistico, n. 3-4

Zen, G. 1983. "I bilanci delle famiglie italiane nell'anno 1981." In Supplemento al Bollettino, n. 14. 30-3-1983

Lugaresi, Sergio. L'impatto redistributivo delle Imposte in Italia. Universit… degli Studi di Modena