Survey_KSS_2014

Abstract

For these reasons we have designed a survey method where we ask respondents to provide their own assessments of EIs for a set of household types. SpeciÖcally, we ask respondents: ìWhat is the net monthly household income that can make a household with two adults and a child attain the same level of material comfort as that of a one-member household with a net monthly income of $2,000? Here we employ data from our survey method only, without combining them with observed consumer choices. Our questionnaire consists of two main parts. In Part A, we pre-assign a net monthly income for a one-member household, a reference income (RI), and ask respondents to state EIs for seven other household types. In Part B we pose an equivalent assessment problem to this of Part A, using di§erent means of representation to cross-check for consistency: Likert-scale evaluations of material comfort.28 The question we ask is: ìConsider that the net monthly household income of a household with two adults and one child is $5,500. State a number from 1 to 100 that best characterizes the level of material comfort of this household, given that ë10íis ëvery bad,í ë50íis ësu¢ cient,íand ë90íis ëvery good.îíRespondents receive such a question for the onemember household and the seven household types of Part A. Household incomes evaluated in Part B were obtained through a previous pilot study in Germany using the same RIs as in Part A.