Discussion comments on session STCPM31: Accounting for the very rich in household surveys of income and wealth

I would like to start by thanking the organisers and Federico for inviting me to offer comments on these five very interesting papers. To provide a framework for my comments, let me mention an ongoing initiative that is closely related to the main theme of this session. The European Central Bank and the national central banks composing the Eurosystem are currently collaborating on the design of a survey on household finances and consumption, which, if finally approved, will be conducted across the euro area in the near future. The initiative is designed to provide a multidimensional picture of the financial decisions taken by households in multiple areas such as indebtedness, financial holdings, real estate, consumption, income, savings, future pension entitlements, intergenerational transfers, etc. Such an ambitious undertaking requires a careful analysis of the conceptual and practical difficulties linked to survey design and future field work. How to oversample wealthy households was one of the most challenging issues in this regard, especially since the decision on whether to oversample, as well as the choice of method, could affect crosscountry comparability.