A review of new technologies and data sources for measuring household finances: Implications for total survey error

We review process generated data sources and new technologies that could be used to improve the measurement of household finances. The sources include data generated by financial aggregator services, customer loyalty programmes, credit/debit card transactions, and credit rating agencies. The technologies include scanning of barcodes or shopping receipts and smartphone applications. For each of the data sources and technologies, we review what, if anything, is known about (i) the content of what can be measured, (ii) examples of research for which these data have been used, (iii) whether the data have been used as free-standing data sources or linked to probability sample surveys, and (iv) the quality of the data regarding representativeness and measurement quality. The review is structured around an adapted version of the Total Survey Error framework we have developed for evaluating these new data sources, and concludes with a discussion of implications for survey practice and research needs.