An Assessment of the Quality of Survey Reports of Income From the Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) Program
比较行政记录与面对面访谈中受访者报告的AFDC项目参与和福利金额，发现收入来源误分类比完全不报告更常见，且正确识别来源并不提高金额报告的准确性。
This article presents the results of a study that compares administrative record information on participation in and benefits received from the AFDC program with respondents' reports obtained in face-to-face interviews. Taking the information contained in the administrative records to be criterion variables, the study focuses on the nature of response errors in recipients' reports of AFDC benefits. The principal findings are that misclassification of the source of income is more common than outright nonreporting and that the ability to correctly identify the source of benefits is not associated with greater accuracy in reporting the amount of benefits received. While there was a good deal of dispersion between the survey and record amounts information, on average the monthly benefit as estimated from the survey only slightly understated the monthly benefit as estimated from program records. Factors affecting the accuracy of AFDC recipiency and payment reporting, and suggestions for improved measurement, are also discussed.