Household Panel Study Research Articles

Determinants of Wealth Fluctuation: Changes in Hard-To-Measure Economic Variables in a Panel Study.

Measuring fluctuation in families' economic conditions is the raison d'être of household panel studies. Accordingly, a particularly challenging critique is that extreme fluctuation in measured economic characteristics might indicate compounding measurement error rather than actual changes in families' economic wellbeing. In this article, we address this claim by moving beyond the assumption that particularly large fluctuation in economic conditions might be too large to be realistic. Instead, we examine predictors of large fluctuation, capturing sources related to actual socio-economic changes as well as potential sources of measurement error. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we study between-wave changes in a dimension of economic wellbeing that is especially hard to measure, namely, net worth as an indicator of total family wealth. Our results demonstrate that even very large between-wave changes in net worth can be attributed to actual socio-economic and demographic processes. We do, however, also identify a potential source of measurement error that contributes to large wealth fluctuation, namely, the treatment of incomplete information, presenting a pervasive challenge for any longitudinal survey that includes questions on economic assets. Our results point to ways for improving wealth variables both in the data collection process (e.g., by measuring active savings) and in data processing (e.g., by improving imputation algorithms).

Change in Spousal Human Capital and Housework: A Longitudinal Analysis

We bring a novel, longitudinal, perspective to an ongoing series of influential papers that investigates the relationship between housework, marital bargaining, and spousal resources. For the first time, we believe, in this long debate, we combine a longitudinal perspective with a measure of resources—human capital—that provides an indicator of the likely economic bargaining power of the non-employed, thereby enabling their inclusion in analysis. We use longitudinal fixed-effects models to address the relationship between housework hours and spousal resources based on yearly couples’ data from the nationally representative British Household Panel Study (N = 6,541 couples). Using the measure of human capital, we find change in wives’ own human capital to be the most important factor determining housework for both spouses, and no evidence for gender deviance neutralization. We conclude it is women’s resources that are the critical determining factor in bargaining over housework.

Forecasting household debt with latent transition modelling

ABSTRACTLatent transition modelling (LTM) was used to forecast household debt patterns. A model based on three waves (2011, 2013 and 2015) and over 36,000 responses from the biennial panel study of Polish households – Social Diagnosis – provided data for these forecasts. Based on the fact that transitions between latent states are shaped by previous latent states and socio-economic covariates – age of household head, income and number of household members – we were able to demonstrate LTM as a tool to generate aggregate predictions for both medium- and long-term evolution of the household credit market. The declining tendency for household credit participation rates in Poland is expected in the longer term. In particular, the trend should be supported by decline in the proportion of mortgage debtors. The groups of households indebted for the consumption of durables and those seeking credit outside the banking sector are the groups predicted to remain stable or increase in size.

Subjective Wellbeing, Objective Wellbeing and Inequality in Australia.

In recent years policy makers and social scientists have devoted considerable attention to wellbeing, a concept that refers to people’s capacity to live healthy, creative and fulfilling lives. Two conceptual approaches dominate wellbeing research. The objective approach examines the objective components of a good life. The subjective approach examines people’s subjective evaluations of their lives. In the objective approach how subjective wellbeing relates to objective wellbeing is not a relevant research question. The subjective approach does investigate how objective wellbeing relates to subjective wellbeing, but has focused primarily on one objective wellbeing indicator, income, rather than the comprehensive indicator set implied by the objective approach. This paper attempts to contribute by examining relationships between a comprehensive set of objective wellbeing measures and subjective wellbeing, and by linking wellbeing research to inequality research by also investigating how subjective and objective wellbeing relate to class, gender, age and ethnicity. We use three waves of a representative state-level household panel study from Queensland, Australia, undertaken from 2008 to 2010, to investigate how objective measures of wellbeing are socially distributed by gender, class, age, and ethnicity. We also examine relationships between objective wellbeing and overall life satisfaction, providing one of the first longitudinal analyses linking objective wellbeing with subjective evaluations. Objective aspects of wellbeing are unequally distributed by gender, age, class and ethnicity and are strongly associated with life satisfaction. Moreover, associations between gender, ethnicity, class and life satisfaction persist after controlling for objective wellbeing, suggesting that mechanisms in addition to objective wellbeing link structural dimensions of inequality to life satisfaction.

Cultural events - does attendance improve health? Evidence from a Polish longitudinal study.

BackgroundAlthough there is strong advocacy for uptake of both the arts and creative activities as determinants of individual health conditions, studies evaluating causal influence of attendance at cultural events on population health using individual population data on health are scarce. If available, results are often only of an associative nature. In this light, this study investigated causative impact of attendance at cultural events on self-reported and physical health in the Polish population.MethodsFour recent waves (2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015) of the biennial longitudinal Polish household panel study, Social Diagnosis, were analysed. The data, representative for the Polish population aged over 16, with respect to age, gender, classes of place of residence and NUTS 2 regions, were collected from self-report questionnaires. Causative influence of cultural attendance on population health was established using longitudinal population representative data. To account for unobserved heterogeneity of individuals and to mitigate issues caused by omitted variables, a panel data model with a fixed effects estimator was applied. The endogeneity problem (those who enjoy good health are more likely to participate in cultural activities more frequently) was circumvented by application of instrumental variables.ResultsResults confirmed positive association between cultural attendance and self-reported health. However, in contrast to the often suggested positive causative relationship, such a link was not confirmed by the study. Additionally, no evidence was found to corroborate a positive impact from cultural attendance on physical health. Both findings were substantiated by augmentation in the longitudinal perspective and causal link.ConclusionsWe showed the relation between attendance at cultural events and self-reported health could only be confirmed as associational. Therefore, this study provided little justification to encourage use of passive cultural participation as a measure of health promotion (improvement). Our study did not confirm any identifiable benefit to physical health from passive participation in culture. Future research should investigate the causative influence of active participation in creative activities on health outcomes as, in contrast to passive attendance, it may be influential.

Attendance of cultural events and involvement with the arts—impact evaluation on health and well-being from a Swiss household panel survey

ObjectivesAlthough there is strong uptake of active or passive engagement with the cultural and creative activities as determinants of individual health, well-being and social participation, few population studies report any causal influence on self-reported and physical health or life satisfaction from voluntary engagement with the arts (playing an instrument or singing, painting, sculpture) or passive cultural participation (attending the cinema, theatre, opera and exhibitions). This study set out to investigate any potential derived benefits to the Swiss population. Study designThe 2010 and 2013 waves of the Swiss Household Panel study were used for analysis. The data are representative for the Swiss population aged 14 years and older with respect to major demographic variables. MethodsUsing longitudinal data, the strengths of the two approaches to evaluating causal inference were simultaneously applied: propensity score matching and difference-in-differences. Propensity score matching attempted to eliminate selection bias by conditioning on confounding variables. Difference-in-differences estimator was applied to remove unobserved fixed effects via intra-individual comparisons over time by comparing the trends in a matched treatment and control group. ResultsThe study showed that voluntary cultural activity—of any type, passive or active—did not seem to have any causative influence on health and well-being. Results showed that long-term health and well-being did not improve significantly as a result of any specific activity in the cultural arena. ConclusionsThe investigation provided little evidence to justify health promotion messages for involvement with the arts. Nevertheless, these findings do not contest that active or passive participation in cultural- and arts-related activities may be beneficial to health and well-being when guided by qualified therapists to treat specific health-related problems.

Children's Sex and the Happiness of Parents.

Demographers are interested in sex preferences for children because they can skew sex ratios and influence population-level fertility, parenting behavior, and family outcomes. Based on parity progression ratios, in most European countries, there are no sex preferences for a first child, but a strong preference for mixed-sex children. We hypothesize that mixed-sex preferences also influence parental happiness. Parents’ disappointment with a second child of the same sex as the first could have negative effects for parents and children. We use longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study to examine parental happiness by the children’s sex and analyze whether these effects differ by parent’s sex, age, nativity, and educational attainment. The results are only partially consistent with predictions from parity progression ratios. As expected, parental happiness does not depend on the sex of the first child. We find weak evidence suggesting that two boys decrease happiness, but the findings are not consistent across German and British data or across subpopulations. Moreover, two girls do not reduce happiness. Although sex preferences influence fertility, they appear to have little impact on happiness, perhaps because of unobserved positive factors associated with having same-sex children.

The changing graduate labour market: analysis using a new indicator of graduate jobs

Abstract This paper examines differentiation in the recent evolving graduate labour market in Britain. Using a novel statistically derived indicator of graduate jobs, based on job skill requirements in three-digit occupations obtained from the British Skills and Employment Survey series, we analyse trends in the labour market between 1997/2001 and 2006/2012. The indicator performs better than other indicators in validation tests, could be applied flexibly in other contexts, and is available in the Additional file 1. We find that the massive influx of graduates into the labour force has been absorbed with no increase in overeducation. However, the returns to graduation have become more dispersed, with those at the upper quartile of the residual distribution increasing, while those at the lowest quartile have fallen. The wage gap between matched and overeducated graduates increased by 11 log points. Using the British Household Panel Study, we find that the persistence of overeducation status did not change but for non-employed male graduates moving into employment, the chances of entering a graduate job decreased. JEL Classification: J21, J24, J3

Height, Income and Voting

The claim that income drives political preferences is at the core of political economy theory, yet empirical estimates of income’s effect on political behavior range widely. Drawing on traditions in economic history and anthropology, we propose using height as a proxy for economic well-being. Using data from the British Household Panel Study, this article finds that taller individuals are more likely to support the Conservative Party, support conservative policies and vote Conservative; a one-inch increase in height increases support for Conservatives by 0.6 per cent. As an extension, the study employs height as an instrumental variable for income, and finds that each additional thousand pounds of annual income translates into a 2–3 percentage point increase in the probability of supporting the Conservatives, and that income drives political beliefs and voting in the same direction.

Britain's new housing precariat: housing wealth pathways out of homeownership

Most Britons aspire to own their home outright before retirement. This article looks at the rocky road from the edges of ownership, where home buyers are trying to cope with pressing spending needs and mortgage repayments, towards outright ownership. Using the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), sequence analysis is applied to describe the housing wealth pathways of mortgagors as they strive to achieve outright ownership. The study pays particular attention to the risks that mortgagors are exposed to, and the tactics they employ as mortgage managers. A minority is trapped on the edges of ownership. Multinomial regression model estimates suggest that this new housing precariat is more likely to be female, younger, experience a relationship breakup, high mortgage–income ratios and have an additional child in the household. For this housing precariat, homeownership is not a safety net; it becomes a liability that exposes mortgagors to new social risks. These emerging social risks warrant policy intervention targeted on vulnerable home owner groups.

Indirect Sampling: A Review of Theory and Recent Applications

Survey practitioners regularly face the task to draw a sample from a (sub-) population for which no sampling frame exists. Indirect sampling might be a way out in such situations, given that connections exist between the target population and another population for which probability sampling is feasible. While the theory of indirect sampling originated in the context of household panel studies, a wider area of applications emerged during the last decade. We first give a short review of the theory of indirect sampling, show that estimators from indirect samples might have smaller variance than the corresponding direct estimators (contrary to some claims in the literature), summarize recent applications and discuss some issues that are relevant for applying indirect sampling in practice. We also present some theory for unbiased estimation after an additional subsampling stage that was necessary for sampling kindergarten children in the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS).

Diverse pathways in becoming an adult: The role of structure, agency and context

Although the transition from education to work has been a topic of much research, there is still lack of understanding regarding experiences of recent cohorts of young people. Moreover, much of the debate has focused on the polarization of youth transitions, at the neglect of a large group of young people who fall outside this dualism. This paper introduces a diverse pathways view offering a more comprehensive understanding of changing youth transitions and examines how transitions are shaped by interactions between structure and individual agency. The study is based on data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UK-HLS) using sequence analysis to identify transition patterns among cohorts born in 1980–1984 and 1985–1989. Five distinct clusters could be identified, differentiating between those who participate in extended education, two pathways dominated by continuous employment, either directly after completing compulsory schooling at age 16 or after some further education, and two pathways characterized by exclusion from the labor market (either through prolonged experience of unemployment or inactivity). Both structural and agency variables are associated with variations in transition patterns, pointing to the need of conceptualizing the role of the agent as well as that of structures and resources for a better understanding of the processes underlying the selection into different pathways.

The Swiss Household Panel Study: Observing social change since 1999

Collecting data on households and individuals since 1999, the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) is an ongoing, unique, large-scale, nationally representative, longitudinal study in Switzerland (N=7,383 households and N=12,119 persons interviewed in 2014). The data of the SHP provide a rich source of information to study social change in Switzerland over a significant period on a wide variety of topics. The SHP aims to provide both continuity and innovation in measurement and data collection, with the combination of retrospective and prospective longitudinal data in the most recent refreshment sample as one notable example of such an innovation. This paper provides an overview of the SHP – focusing on its origin, aims, design, content, data collection and adjustments, possibilities for cross-national comparisons, data use and accomplishments.

Social and household factors affecting child health checkup attendance based on a household survey in Japan

Child health checkups are an important public service to support children’s development; however, many children do not attend all the child health checkups that are required by maternal and child health law (i.e., at 1 month, 4 months, 1 and a half years, and 3 years of age). This study aimed to identify social and household factors influencing child health checkup attendance. We used data from a longitudinal household panel study in Japan. The total number of subjects was 2,612 children. We extracted numerous social variables reflecting childcare and conducted logistic regression analyses. In every health checkup, the attendance rate was significantly lower for children whose birth order was 3rd or later. Children whose father graduated from a 4-year college or whose mother had 5 or more communicating neighbors were significantly more likely to attend the 1-and-a-half-year checkup. Children whose maternal annual income was in the middle range (1.5 to 5.0 million yen) tended not to attend checkups after 1 and a half years of age. We concluded that the later birth order was the factor of non-attendance. On the other hand, high paternal educational attainment and many communicating neighbors were identified as the factors of attendance.

Low Paid Employment in Britain: Estimating State-Dependence and Stepping Stone Effects

Using 18 waves of the British Household Panel Study, this paper examines state dependence and stepping stone effects of low pay. A distinguishing feature is that five types of transition- not in the labour force (NILF), unemployment, self-employment, low pay and higher pay are modelled separately. The results show that both state dependence and stepping stone effects of low pay are present. However, there is no evidence to support a low-pay no-pay cycle. The introduction of the national minimum wage does not appear to have affected state-dependence and stepping stone effects of low pay.

The Dwelling Panel – A New Research Method for Studying Urban Change

Classical panel studies, such as the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), and the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), are based either on households or persons in households. Any attempts to break down such data into smaller spatial units such as neighbourhoods, due migration and changes in a specific sample can only be described by the stayers and the out-movers. With the exception of new members in stayer households, there is no information on households moving into a given neighbourhood. Consequently, when using classical panel data, it is not possible to analyse appropriately changes in small areas. In order to solve the problem of population changes in small spatial units such as neighbourhoods, we recommend using an alternative sampling unit: instead of households, we suggest focusing on dwellings and houses. The dwelling panel allows us to examine processes, such as gentrification, poverty and voting behaviour in small urban areas. Drawing on an ongoing study, we shall discuss methodological issues and show how a dwelling panel can be constructed and maintained in several waves. In the process, we shall discuss panel attrition and compare possible replacement strategies in classical panels with those in dwelling panels.

How a Universal Music Education Program Affects Time Use, Behavior, and School Attitude

It is still widely debated how non-cognitive skills can be affected by policy intervention. For example, universal music education programs are becoming increasingly popular among policy makers in Germany and other developed countries. These are intended to give children from poor families the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Moreover, policymakers present these programs as innovative policies that are important for the personality development of young children. However, the effects of universal music education on such outcomes are not yet sufficiently studied. This paper analyses the Jedem Kind ein Instrument (an instrument for every child) program in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. To do so, data from the German household panel studies SOEP and FiD are combined with regional data on primary and music schools. Using a difference-in-differences estimator, I show that the program successfully increases music participation among disadvantaged children. It does so more effectively than the alternative policy of reducing fees at public music schools. I further find that participation reduces conduct problems and improves student teacher relationships, especially among boys.

Assessing the Need for a New Household Panel Study: Health Insurance and Health Care.

This paper considers the availability of data for addressing questions related to health insurance and health care and the potential contribution of a new household panel study. The paper begins by outlining some of the major questions related to policy and concludes that survey data on health insurance, access to care, health spending, and overall economic well-being will likely be needed to answer them. The paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of existing sources of survey data for answering these questions. The paper concludes that either a new national panel study, an expansion in the age range of subjects in existing panel studies, or a set of smaller changes to existing panel and cross-sectional surveys, would significantly enhance our understanding of the dynamics of health insurance, access to health care, and economic well-being.

Family Formation Processes: Assessing the Need for a New Nationally Representative Household Panel Survey in the United States.

The American family has undergone rapid transformation. Careful measurement attention to family formation is important because families are at the heart of numerous decisions, roles, and responsibilities with implications for understanding the well-being of families, adults and children. This paper considers whether there is a need for a new household panel study that addresses family formation. This paper consists of a review of the recent body of population-based, American surveys and finds a considerable gap in the ability to study the implications of families for the health and well-being of Americans. Earlier panel surveys used to assess family life anchored questions around marital events, but changes in family patterns require attention to a more diverse set of family forms. The paper concludes with recommendations for a multi-purpose panel study. The key challenge is to keep to pace with complexity and changes in American family life while at the same time maintaining a parsimonious set of survey questions.

Genotyping a new, national household panel study: White paper prepared for NSF-sponsored Conference, May 2014

In this paper, I demonstrate that existing social surveys that include genotypic markers are all limited on at least one of the following dimensions: national representativeness (versus targeted sample), genotyping platform (candidate genes v. genome-wide measures), data structure (i.e. individuals v. pedigrees), or measured phenotypes (lack of rich longitudinal socioeconomic and developmental measures). Given this, I argue that the U.S. either needs a novel, nationally representative household panel study that includes genome-wide marker data or to genotype all respondents of the existing Panel Study of Income Dynamics. I conclude by showing that such a study would be adequately powered to deploy Genetic Risk Score analysis and that, in turn, such scores could be deployed to model gene-environment interaction effects.