IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ifs/ifsewp/02-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Biases in the reporting of labour market dynamics

Author

Listed:
  • Gillian Paull

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

Abstract

Correctly measuring individual dynamics in labour market behaviour has become increasingly important as research and policy attention has become more focused on the relationships between current employment opportunities and past experience. Surveys collecting information on labour market histories use repeated interviews and retrospective reporting, laying the resulting data open to potential biases from spurious transitions due to random measurement errors and from systematic recall error. This paper uses a unique data opportunity provided by the British Household Panel Survey to systematically investigate the impact of recall on measured labour market behaviour and to highlight how and to what degree the biases in the reported data may affect the estimation of models of labour market dynamics. The results allow analysts to judge whether conclusions drawn from such models are likely to be compromised by the reporting biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Gillian Paull, 2002. "Biases in the reporting of labour market dynamics," IFS Working Papers W02/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:02/10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifs.org.uk/wps/wp0210.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Poterba, James M & Summers, Lawrence H, 1995. "Unemployment Benefits and Labor Market Transitions: A Multinomial Logit Model with Errors in Classification," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(2), pages 207-216, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bellemare, Charles, 2007. "A life-cycle model of outmigration and economic assimilation of immigrants in Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 553-576, April.
    2. Hausman, J. A. & Abrevaya, Jason & Scott-Morton, F. M., 1998. "Misclassification of the dependent variable in a discrete-response setting," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 239-269, September.
    3. Terence Tai-Leung Chong & Kwan-To Wong & Melvin Hinich, 2007. "Identification and Estimation of Structural-Change Models with Misclassification," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(36), pages 1-19.
    4. repec:lan:wpaper:2277 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Bell, Una Louise & Artola, Concha, 2001. "Identifying labour market dynamics using labour force survey data," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-44, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Michael W. L. Elsby & Bart Hobijn & Aysegul Sahin & Robert G. Valletta, 2011. "The Labor Market in the Great Recession — An Update to September 2011," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 43(2 (Fall)), pages 353-384.
    7. Arezzo, Maria Felice & Horodnic, Ioana A. & Williams, Colin C. & Guagnano, Giuseppina, 2024. "Measuring participation in undeclared work in Europe using survey data: A method for resolving social desirability bias," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Kluve, Jochen & Schaffner, Sandra & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2006. "Labor Force Status Dynamics in the German Labor Market: Individual Heterogeneity and Cyclical Sensitivity," Technical Reports 2006,20, Technische Universität Dortmund, Sonderforschungsbereich 475: Komplexitätsreduktion in multivariaten Datenstrukturen.
    9. Pina-Sánchez Jose & Koskinen Johan & Plewis Ian, 2019. "Adjusting for Measurement Error in Retrospectively Reported Work Histories: An Analysis Using Swedish Register Data," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 35(1), pages 203-229, March.
    10. Shuaizhang Feng & Yingyao Hu, 2013. "Misclassification Errors and the Underestimation of the US Unemployment Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 1054-1070, April.
    11. David Joulfaian & Mark Rider, 2003. "Errors in Variables and Estimated Price Elasticities for Charitable Giving," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0307, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    12. Henry S. Farber & Robert G. Valletta, 2015. "Do Extended Unemployment Benefits Lengthen Unemployment Spells?: Evidence from Recent Cycles in the U.S. Labor Market," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(4), pages 873-909.
    13. M. P. Keane & R. M. Sauer, 2008. "Implications of Classification Error for the Dynamics of Female Labor Supply," CHILD Working Papers wp13_08, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    14. Arthur Lewbel, 2007. "Estimation of Average Treatment Effects with Misclassification," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 537-551, March.
    15. Molinari, Francesca, 2008. "Partial identification of probability distributions with misclassified data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 81-117, May.
    16. Robert Valletta, 2014. "Recent extensions of U.S. unemployment benefits: search responses in alternative labor market states," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, December.
    17. repec:pri:indrel:dsp01th83kz40p is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Robert Dixon & John Freebairn & Guay Lim, 2003. "Why are recessions as deep as they are? The behaviour over time of the outflow from unemployment: a new perspective," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 37-64, March.
    19. Dennis Fok & Richard Paap & Bram Van Dijk, 2012. "A Rank‐Ordered Logit Model With Unobserved Heterogeneity In Ranking Capabilities," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 831-846, August.
    20. Hyslop, Dean R. & Townsend, Wilbur, 2017. "Employment misclassification in survey and administrative reports," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 19-23.
    21. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:3:y:2007:i:36:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Luca Zanin & Raffaella Calabrese, 2017. "Interaction effects of region-level GDP per capita and age on labour market transition rates in Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-29, December.
    23. Schmidt, Christoph M, 1999. "Persistence and the German Unemployment Problem: Empirical Evidence on German Labour Market Flows," CEPR Discussion Papers 2057, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • C8 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:02/10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emma Hyman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifsssuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.