Encuesta Permanente De Hogares Research Articles

A Locally Stationary Markov Chain Model for Labor Dynamics

Labor market surveys usually partition individuals into three states: employed, unemployed, and out of the labor force. In particular, the Argentine “ Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (EPH)” follows a rotating scheme so that each selected household is interviewed four times within two years. Each time, the current labor state of individuals is recorded, together with extensive demographic information. We model those labor paths as consecutive observations from independent Markov chains, were transition matrixes are related to covariates through a multivariate logistic link. Because the EPH is severely affected by attrition, a significant fraction of the surveyed paths contain just one single point. Instead of discarding those observations, we opt to base estimation on the full data by (i) assuming the Markov chains are stationary and (ii) incorporating the chronological time of the first interview as an additional covariate for each individual. This novel treatment represents a convenient approximation, which we illustrate with data from Argentina in the period 1995-2002 via maximum likelihood estimation. Several interesting labor market indexes, which are functionally related to the transition matrixes, are also presented in the last portion of the paper and illustrated with real data.

Pobreza multidimensional urbana en Argentina. ¿Reducción de las disparidades entre el Norte Grande Argentino y Centro-Cuyo-Sur? (2003-2016)

Este artículo analiza las disparidades territoriales desde el punto de vista de la pobreza entre el Norte Grande Argentino (NGA), históricamente más rezagado, y las restantes regiones del país en el periodo de 2003 a 2016. A partir de datos de la Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (EPH), se estima el índice de pobreza multidimensional (IPM) basado en el método de Alkire-Foster, en atención a las dimensiones de vivienda, servicios básicos, educación, empleo y seguridad social, e ingresos. Se encuentra que hubo una disminución de la pobreza en todas las regiones y, entre 2011 y 2016, una significativa reducción de las asimetrías regionales, que, aunque alentadora, debe relativizarse por distintas razones.

Self-reported income data: are people telling the truth?

PurposeThis paper aims to detect anomalous data in income reports of Argentina, including personal income – from a sample of households – and statements of public officials.Design/methodology/approachA widely known technique in forensic accounting – such as Benford’s Law – is used. The Chi-square test and the absolute mean deviation are used for verification. The databases consulted include the income declared by households in the Permanent Household Survey – for the 2003-2017 period – and the capital declarations of high-ranking public officials – for the period 1999-2017.FindingsThe results suggest that income reported in the Encuesta Permanente de Hogares do not follow a Benford´s distribution, and the degree of conformity with this decreases significantly between 2007 and 2015 – coincident with the intervention period of the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos. Patrimonial statements of public officials present an acceptable level of compliance with Benford’s law, especially among those of the legislative branch (in more than 90% of cases) although to a lesser extent among officials of the executive branch.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that income reports from the Permanent Household Survey, for the period 2007-2015, should be used with reservations because of their possible manipulation.Originality/valueDuring the intervention of the official statistics institute in Argentina (2007-2015), the idea of lack of credibility of its reports has been disseminated. To date, however, there is no empirical evidence to support it related to income.

Detecting Anomalous Data in Household Surveys: Evidence for Argentina

Abstract This paper advances in the detection of anomalous data in income reports of Argentina. In particular, income declared by households surveyed in the Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (EPH, Permanent Household Survey in English) -for the period 2003-2017- and in the Encuesta Anual de Hogares Urbanos (EAHU, Annual Urban Household Survey in English) -for the period 2010-2014- are analyzed. A widely known technique in forensic accounting and auditing, such as Benford’s law -also known as the first digit law- is used. If the analyzed data were generated naturally-free of manipulation- it should follow the logarithmic distribution of Benford. The Chi-square test and the absolute mean deviation (MAD) are used for verification. The results suggest that the income reported in the EPH does not follow the Benford distribution and the degree of compliance with this law decreases significantly between 2007-2015 coinciding with the intervention period of the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC, National Institute of Statistics and Censuses in English).

La política social y sus efectos sobre la pobreza durante distintas etapas macroeconómicas. Argentina, 1992-2012

El articulo analiza los cambios registrados en la politica social en la Argentina durante las fases de implementacion de reformas estructurales y el ciclo de crecimiento bajo politicas heterodoxas....

Clases y reproducción social: el espacio social cordobés en la primera década del siglo XXI

In this paper we propose a construction of the social space of Gran Córdoba (Argentina) in the last decade, as a first moment (objectivist) of a research about social reproduction’s strategies of the different classes and class fractions that compose it. This implies a theoretical choice about the way to conceive the social classes and the dynamics of their reproduction. It also means to propose a theoretical and methodological articulation for its empirical construction. It also entails a series of technical decisions to adapt this articulation with the use of the data sources from the national statistical system. Based on the notion of social space (Bourdieu), we propose a relational construction of classes and fractions from the set of family resources available for their social reproduction, mainly economical y cultural. For this construction we apply jointly factorial methods and classificatory methods, based on the information captured by the “Encuesta Permanente de Hogares” in the third quarters of 2003 and 2011. The construction of social space, which identifies four main classes with their respective fractions and shows a homologous structure in both periods, will allow us to make explicit the theoretical debate about the classes and their dynamics, to show the heuristic value of the decisions previously made, and it is the conditions of possibility for implementing the qualitative stage of the research.

Household Surveys as a Source of Data for Event History Analysis

The authors introduce a method that allows the use of data from rotating panel surveys, a design used in many household or labour force surveys, to realize statistical analyses similar to event history analysis. The method is illustrated with two examples, one on the dynamics of poverty — the effect of demographic and socioeconomic factors on the hazard of becoming poor in Argentina — and the other on family dynamics — the conversion of consensual unions into marriages. Both examples use data from the Argentinean Encuesta Permanente de Hogares, a national survey that is not designed to collect prospective or biographical data. The method allows for the use of time-varying independent variables and thus allows one to estimate the effect of an event on the hazard of another event, as in conventional event history analysis; several examples are provided.

Reforming Higher Education in Latin America: Policy and Practice

The Challenges of Education in Brazil . Edited by Colin Brock and Simon Schwartzman. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education. (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2004.) Informe Sobre la Educación Superior en Chile: 1980–2003. By Andrés Bernasconi and Fernando Rojas. (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 2004. Pp. 201) Cambio Organizacional y Disciplinario en Unidades de Investigación y Posgrado en Ciencias Sociales en México: Una Visión Comparativa. Coordinated by Rollin Kent Serna. (Mexico City: Plaza & Valdes, 2003. Pp. xiii+257.) To Export Progress: The Golden Age of University Assistance in the Americas. By Daniel C. Levy. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Pp. 407. $45.00 cloth.) Tertiary Education in Colombia: Paving the Way for Reform. By The World Bank. (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2003. Pp. 228. $30.00 paper.) The Decline of the Guru: The Academic Profession in the Third World. Edited by Philip G. Altbach. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Pp. 348. $85.00 cloth, $26.95 paper.) Estudiantes y Profesionales en la Argentina: Una Mirada Desde la Encuesta Permanente de Hogares. Edited by Anibal Y. Jozami and Eduardo Sánchez Martínez. (Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, 2001. Pp. 183.) Power and Politics in University Governance: Organization and Change at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. By Imanol Ordorika. (New York and London: Routledge, 2003. Pp. 272. $85.00 cloth.) Latin America occupies a peculiar niche in the world of higher education. Statistical indicators underline the region's relative isolation and [End Page 228] backwardness in higher education and science. A recently compiled Atlas of Student Mobility1 shows no Latin American country among the twenty-one major destinations in the world, while all the countries of the region combined contribute fewer students to the world flow than South Korea. In the recent ranking of five hundred "world class" universities—arguably a contentious exercise—only two Latin American institutions (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México [UNAM] in Mexico and Universidade de São Paulo [USP] in Brazil) have any chance at all, way back in the second hundredth ranking.2 Science indicators are even more dramatic: Dutch or Swedish scientists have more publications in the Science Citation Index than all the Latin American and Caribbean scientists together.3 This picture stands in sharp contrast with the dramatic expansion of both basic and higher education systems, rapidly growing enrollment rates at all levels, multiplication and diversification of tertiary institutions, and the increased percentage of the labor force with higher qualifications. Only five decades ago there was just a handful of public universities in each country, mostly located in the major cities and serving perhaps half a million students in the region. The institutional landscape is so diverse today that it defies easy description and in each country extends over the entire national space, attending roughly ten million students.4 Although other world regions have also seen comparable expansion, the jump in enrollment rates has been more dramatic in Latin America than elsewhere. The contrast calls our attention to the variable outcomes of transformation processes that have taken place all over the world during the last few decades, both as a consequence of similar demands upon higher education and of the adoption of ideas and organizational forms. Even before globalization became the catch-all concept to subsume changes in higher education, the international transfer of experiences and models has occurred continuously and in many different ways. The Latin American university throughout the last century has been the battleground for experiments and reforms often inspired and promoted by France, Germany, Great Britain, and increasingly the United States. Both [End Page 229] university-based and military-government inspired reformers in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, the latter following in the steps of the others in 1966, 1968, and 1973 after the clamping down on student and faculty protests, looked at particular elements of the American or European models for inspiration. Beginning...