Representative Household Panel Research Articles

Human capital, education, achievement and learning

This paper reviews the most important scientific and policy research in the area of human capital, education achievement and learning and discusses the need for a new nationally representative household panel for the United States to provide the research resources necessary to keep the United States at the forefront of scientific and policy research in this area. Excellent panel data incorporating recent advances in panel design and innovative measures are required for addressing the most important policy issues. The major household panels internationally all have large sections devoted to hu- man capital, education achievement and learning. Within the broad framework of human capital there is overwhelming evidence of the importance of skills or abili- ties to lifetime success, most obviously in earnings, but also in many other outcomes relevant to policy makers. Increasingly human capital has been linked to areas such as health outcomes, marriage, fertility, social cohesion, immigrant assimilation, en- trepreneurship and criminal behavior. This report discusses the need for a new na- tionally representative household panel for the United States to provide the research resources necessary to keep the United States at the forefront of scientific and policy research in the area of human capital, education achievementand learning. Section 2 discusses the most important current scientific and policy issues in this area. Section 3 assesses the need for a new household panel to address these issues. What infor- mation needs to be collected is discussed in Section 4, with a special emphasis on innovativemeasuresto push forwardthe research agenda.Finally, Section 5 provides some conclusions and suggested priorities.

The panel study of income dynamics: Renew or replace?

Assessing the need for a new nationally representative household panel survey in the United States

Advancing the science of child and adolescent development: Do we need a new household panel survey?

This paper examines the extent to which a new nationally representative household panel survey could bring children and adolescents to the forefront of its design. We begin by discussing how major demographic shifts, such as reduced social mobility and transformations in family structure, may affect children and adolescent development through individual, family, and sociocultural processes. We then review the existing household surveys in the United States and highlight the strengths and weaknesses for studying how major societal trends and changes affect child and adolescent development. We then debate several different design approaches for a new study and recommend either a longitudinal panel design, which includes all children in the panel survey, or a sequential cohort design, that includes a subsample of children and embedded birth cohort study. We highlight that a large, nationally representative dataset cannot replace standalone, more in-depth developmental studies of children and adolescents with high-fidelity measurement of processes. Instead, we argue that a new panel survey could take a more targeted approach and measure the major constructs of children's development as well as select family and sociocultural processes by drawing on recent advances in survey measurement techniques. We conclude by affirming that new household survey has the potential to contribute greatly to our understanding of the developmental origins of life long wellbeing as well as the effects of major demographic shifts in the 21st century on child and adolescent development.

Toward a new nationally representative household panel survey (NRHPS)

A Nationally Representative Household Panel Survey (NRHPS) would represent a natural extension into the mid-21st century of the development of repeated cross-sectional and then longitudinal/panel household surveys that have constituted major resources for developments in social science and social policy since World War II. Although an inherently expensive endeavor, it would keep the U.S. comparable to and competitive with similarly wealthy nations that have already developed NRHPSs. An NRHPS may be the most cost-effective way to generate the data needed for advancement in social science and social policy because such progress requires data on a much wider range of attributes of the same individuals, households, and their environments than are currently available in existing surveys. These surveys tend to be specialized by scientific disciplines, substantive/policy areas, and/or segments of the population, and thus preclude the kind of thinking and data necessary across disciplines, substantive policy areas, and segments of the population that are most needed in both social science and social policy. To be a cost-effective vehicle for such purposes an NHRPS must: (1) create integration and synergy across disciplines, substantive areas, and population subgroups; (2) cost-effectively meet scientific and logistical challenges; and (3) foster and utilize scientific and methodological innovations.

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.

Design Matters

Computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) offers many attractive benefits over paper-and-pencil interviewing. There is, however, mixed evidence on the impact of CAPI on interview length, an important survey outcome in the context of length limits imposed by survey budgets and concerns over respondent burden. In this article, recent experimental and quasi-experimental evidence derived from a large, nationally representative household panel study is used to investigate CAPI’s impact on interview length. We find that effects very much depend on how CAPI is implemented, including the hardware and software adopted, the extent and nature of dependent data, and even interviewer workloads—a finding that helps explain the conflicting results from previous studies. Overall, our study leads us to the conclusion that, absent dependent data, CAPI is likely to increase interview lengths, but the potential reductions from dependent data are very large, such that even modest levels can lead to net reductions in interview lengths.

Non‐Standard “Contingent” Employment and Job Satisfaction: A Panel Data Analysis

Contingent forms of employment are usually associated with low‐quality jobs and, by inference, jobs that workers find relatively unsatisfying. This assumption is tested using data from a representative household panel survey covering a country (Australia) with a high incidence of nonstandard employment. Results from the estimation of ordered logit regression models reveal that among males, both casual employees and labor‐hire (agency) workers (but not fixed‐term contract workers) report noticeably lower levels of job satisfaction, though this association diminishes with job tenure. Negative effects for women are mainly restricted to labor‐hire workers.

Relative prices, consumer preferences, and the demand for food

Shocks to world commodity prices and the depreciation of sterling led to a large increase in the price of food in the UK. It also resulted in large changes in the relative prices of different foods. We document these changes, and consider how they affected the composition of households' shopping baskets. We isolate the impact of changes in relative food prices from variation in preferences using data on purchasing decisions made by a representative panel of British households. We show that changes in relative food prices led to a worsening in the nutritional quality of households' shopping baskets, though this was partially mitigated by offsetting changes in preferences.

Public Health Insurance and Entry into Self-Employment

We estimate the impact of a differential treatment of paid employees versus self-employed workers in a public health insurance system on the entry rate into entrepreneurship. In Germany, the public health insurance system is mandatory for most paid employees, but not for the self-employed, who usually buy private health insurance. Private health insurance contributions are relatively low for the young and healthy, and until 2013 also for males, but less attractive at the other ends of these dimensions and if membership in the public health insurance allows other family members to be covered by contribution-free family insurance. Therefore, the health insurance system can create incentives or disincentives to starting up a business depending on the family's situation and health. We estimate a discrete time hazard rate model of entrepreneurial entry based on representative household panel data for Germany, which include personal health information, and we account for non-random sample selection. We estimate that an increase in the health insurance cost differential between self-employed workers and paid employees by 100 euro per month decreases the annual probability of entry into self-employment by 0.38 percentage points, i.e. about a third of the average annual entry rate. The results show that the phenomenon of entrepreneurship lock, which an emerging literature describes for the system of employer provided health insurance in the USA, can also occur in a public health insurance system. Therefore, entrepreneurial activity should be taken into account when discussing potential health care reforms, not only in the USA and in Germany.

Public Health Insurance and Entry into Self-Employment

We estimate the impact of a differential treatment of paid employees versus self-employed workers in a public health insurance system on the entry rate into entrepreneurship. In Germany, the public health insurance system is mandatory for most paid employees, but not for the self-employed, who usually buy private health insurance. Private health insurance contributions are relatively low for the young and healthy, and until 2013 also for males, but less attractive at the other ends of these dimensions and if membership in the public health insurance system allows other family members to be covered by contribution-free family insurance. Therefore, the health insurance system can create incentives or disincentives to starting up a business depending on the family’s situation and health. We estimate a discrete time hazard rate model of entrepreneurial entry based on representative household panel data for Germany, which include personal health information, and we account for non-random sample selection. We estimate that an increase in the health insurance cost differential between self-employed workers and paid employees by 100 euro per month decreases the annual probability of entry into self-employment by 0.38 percentage points, i.e. about a third of the average annual entry rate. The results show that the phenomenon of entrepreneurship lock, which an emerging literature describes for the system of employer provided health insurance in the USA, can also occur in a public health insurance system. Therefore, entrepreneurial activity should be taken into account when discussing potential health care reforms, not only in the USA and in Germany.

Public health insurance and entry into self-employment *

We estimate the impact of a differential treatment of paid employees versus self-employed workers in a public health insurance system on the entry rate into entrepreneurship. In Germany, the public health insurance system is mandatory for most paid employees, but not for the selfemployed, who usually buy private health insurance. Private health insurance contributions are relatively low for the young and healthy, and until 2013 also for males, but less attractive at the other ends of these dimensions and if membership in the public health insurance allows other family members to be covered by contribution-free family insurance. Therefore, the health insurance system can create incentives or disincentives to starting up a business depending on the family’s situation and health. We estimate a discrete time hazard rate model of entrepreneurial entry based on representative household panel data for Germany, which include personal health information, and we account for non-random sample selection. We estimate that an increase in the health insurance cost differential between self-employed workers and paid employees by 100 euro per month decreases the annual probability of entry into selfemployment by 0.38 percentage points, i.e. about a third of the average annual entry rate. The results show that the phenomenon of entrepreneurship lock, which an emerging literature describes for the system of employer provided health insurance in the USA, can also occur in a public health insurance system. Therefore, entrepreneurial activity should be taken into account when discussing potential health care reforms, not only in the USA and in Germany.

The economic gains of cadre status in rural China: Investigating effects and mechanisms

Using nationally representative rural household panel data from 2003 through 2007 in China, we examine economic gains of cadre status and channels through which cadre status increases household earnings. We find that income of cadre households was approximately 10 percent higher than that of non-cadre households on a per capita basis. The cadre income premium did not come from agricultural income but mainly from non-agricultural sources, especially the income from the village and the government. We also find that cadre income premiums were much larger and more significant in economically advanced regions than in less developed regions and in villages that exhibited higher income inequality than their counterparts. Furthermore, this study shows that newly elected cadre households acquired the economic gains immediately and cadre households lost the economic gains immediately when they lost their cadre status, which implies that the cadre economic gains were less likely attributable to human capital of cadres but mainly due to cadre status. Our findings provide evidence for the ongoing debate on distribution of economic gains during the process of transition in emerging market economies.

Does personality moderate reaction and adaptation to major life events? Analysis of life satisfaction and affect in an Australian national sample

We used a nationally representative panel of Australian households to replicate a study by Yap et al. (2012) that evaluated how life satisfaction changed following major life events and the extent to which personality moderated those changes. We replicated the protective function of marriage but found that long-term declines that follow widowhood mostly reflect normative changes. In addition, we found that people reported slight decreases in positive affect following marriage and childbirth, an increase in positive affect following widowhood, and a slight increase in negative affect following childbirth, relative to normative trajectories. The Big Five did not moderate response to life events in a way that is consistent with past theory and research.

Propensity to consent to data linkage: experimental evidence on the role of three survey design features in a UK longitudinal panel

When performing data linkage, survey respondents need to provide their informed consent. Since not all respondents agree to this request, the linked data-set will have fewer observations than the survey data-set alone and bias may be introduced. By focusing on the role that survey design features play in gaining respondents’ consent, this paper provides an innovative contribution to the studies in this field. Analysing experimental data collected in a nationally representative household panel survey of the British population, we find that interview features such as question format (dependent/independent questions) and placement of the consent question within the questionnaire have an impact on consent rates.

Selective Schooling Systems Increase Inequality

We investigate the impact on earnings inequality of a selective education system in which school assignment is based on initial test scores. We use a large, representative household panel survey to compare adult earnings inequality of those growing up under a selective education system with those educated under a comprehensive system. Controlling for a range of background characteristics and the current location, the wage distribution for individuals who grew up in selective schooling areas is quantitatively more unequal, and the difference is statistically significant. The total effect sizes are large: 14% of the raw 90-10 earnings gap and 18% of the conditional 90-10 earnings gap can be explained by differences across schooling systems.

Non-Standard Contingentt Employment and Job Satisfaction: A Panel Data Analysis

It is widely assumed that contingent forms of employment, such as fixed-term contracts, labour-hire and casual employment, are associated with low quality jobs. This hypothesis is tested using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, a nationally representative household panel survey covering a country with a high incidence of non-standard employment. Ordered logit regression models of job satisfaction are estimated that hold constant all time-invariant individual differences as well as a range of observed time-varying characteristics.The results indicate that, among males, both casual employees and labour-hire workers (but not fixed-term contract workers) report noticeably lower levels of job satisfaction. Restricting the sample to persons aged 20-59 increases the estimated magnitudes of these effects. Negative effects for women are mainly restricted to labour-hire workers. We also show that the relationships between job satisfaction and contract type vary with educational attainment and the length of job tenure. Working hours arrangements also mediate the relationship.

Personal Bankruptcy Law, Wealth, and Entrepreneurship--Evidence from the Introduction of a "Fresh Start" Policy

A personal bankruptcy law that allows for a fresh start not only reduces the individual risk involved in entrepreneurship, but may also lead to higher interest rates charged by creditors. Both effects are less relevant for wealthy potential entrepreneurs. This paper illustrates these effects in a model and tests the hypotheses derived by exploiting the introduction of a fresh start policy in Germany in 1999 as a quasi-experiment, based on representative household panel data. The results indicate that the insurance effect of a more forgiving personal bankruptcy law exceeds the interest effect and encourages less wealthy individuals to enter into entrepreneurship. (AMS Subject Classification K35,G33,L26)

Perceived Job Discrimination in Australia: Its Correlates and Consequences

We use data from a nationally representative Australian household panel survey to examine the extent and nature of self-reported job discrimination, its correlates, and its associations with various employment outcomes and measures of subjective wellbeing. We find that approximately 8.5% of job applicants and 7.5% of employees report being discriminated against in the preceding two years, most commonly on the basis of their age. Gender is found to be a common factor predicting perceived discrimination in both job applications and in the course of employment, but the determinants of these two types of discrimination are otherwise somewhat different. In particular, age is a significant determinant of perceived discrimination in job applications only, while being a mother of young children is a significant factor only for discrimination in the course of employment. We also find that, holding other traits constant, ethnic and religious minorities are not significantly more likely to perceive they have been discriminated against. Little evidence of adverse effects of perceived job discrimination is found for wage levels, wage changes and the probability of promotion, but we find large negative effects on subjective outcomes such as job satisfaction and self-assessed probability of job loss.

Non-Standard 'Contingent' Employment and Job Satisfaction: A Panel Data Analysis

It is widely assumed that contingent forms of employment, such as fixed-term contracts, labour-hire and casual employment, are associated with low quality jobs. This hypothesis is tested using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, a nationally representative household panel survey covering a country with a high incidence of non-standard employment. Ordered logit regression models of job satisfaction are estimated that hold constant all time-invariant individual differences as well as a range of observed time-varying characteristics. The results indicate that, among males, both casual employees and labour-hire workers (but not fixed-term contract workers) report noticeably lower levels of job satisfaction. Restricting the sample to persons aged 20-59 increases the estimated magnitudes of these effects. Negative effects for women are mainly restricted to labour-hire workers. We also show that the relationships between job satisfaction and contract type vary with educational attainment and the length of job tenure. Working hours arrangements also mediate the relationship.

The HILDA Survey: a case study in the design and development of a successful Household Panel Survey

The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey is one of only a small number of well established, large nationally representative household panel studies conducted in the world. With annual data collection commencing in 2001 there are now over 10 years of unit record data available to researchers, with the promise of many more to come. While the design of the HILDA Survey owes much to other older household panel studies conducted elsewhere, it has a number of features which make it relatively unique. This paper provides a brief history of the HILDA Survey’s progress to date, focusing first on its design, content and data collection processes, before reviewing its achievements with respect to survey response and usage.