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Bracketing effects in categorized survey questions and the measurement of economic quantities

Abstract: In households surveys, quantities of interest are frequently elicited using categorized (range-card) formats rather than open-ended questions. One advantage of this format is that it typically reduces item non-response. Unfortunately, results from research in social psychology suggest that the choice of bracket values in range-card questions is likely to influence responses. Not much is known about the influence of bracketing effects on the measurement of economic quantities and regression analysis. Based on data from controlled survey experiments, this paper shows that bracketing effects exist in interval data obtained from household surveys and that they are of significant size. I also discuss strategies for limiting bracketing effects in range-card questions and for developing valid econometric models for biased interval data.