Reported childlessness: a further look at cohort estimates based on survey time-series data

Download

PDF (Centre for Population Change Working Paper) - Publishers print Download (1222Kb)

Description/Abstract

The paper investigates further the over-reporting of childlessness in the General Household Survey in recent years and finds that it is due either to respondent error or to respondent fatigue. The bias can be corrected for to some extent by using information on own children in household. Revised fertility histories incorporating own children identified from household information give period estimates of total fertility that are in close agreement with national vital registration statistics, unlike those based on original fertility histories of recent years. Misreporting in fertility histories dates primarily from the reorganization of the GHS at the 2000-01 round, and particularly from 2003-04, when the option of laptop self-completion was introduced for reporting demographic histories