Cohort effect of the great recession

I finished my undergrad in May 2008. Although my sense is that my cohort just about caught the end of the boom, things were far less pleasant for the year behind us. Certainly the gap in employment opportunities between '07 and '09 was large. Future generations will want to know how large.

Care of the Institute for Social Research, there is now data that can quantify these effects. Transition into Adulthood is a longitudinal survey from childhood through adulthood, and a new wave capturing the effects of 2008 has just been released:

Transition into Adulthood (TA) (release 1): 2011

The preliminary 2011 Transition into Adulthood data file (TA-2011) is now available.

This data file represents the fourth wave of the Transition into Adulthood Study (TA) which was introduced in 2005 to capture data on the developmental pathways and outcomes of children who participated in the PSID Child Development Study as they transitioned into young adulthood. This study fills a gap between detailed information about development up through adolescence, and detailed information on adulthood once PSID panel members assume the role of economic independence as heads and spouses in the main study. The module collects data on health and emotional well-being, time use, community involvement, self identity and perception, expectations for the future, family, peer, and romantic relationships, work, schooling, and more. The interview domains are coordinated with the CDS adolescent measures and the PSID employment and health measures, and additionally provide new questions unique to this developmental stage.

Breastfeeding and Reading ability: some Irish data

The data from Growing up in Ireland is becoming available for secondary analysis. It is a great resource which, hopefully, researchers in Ireland and elsewhere will take full advantage of. From time to time I will post some snapshots from the data.
The graph below shows the distribution of reading ability (at age 9) by whether the child was breastfed. Its clear that the distribution for those who were breastfed is to the right: the average is about one third of a standard deviation higher. The proportion who were breastfed is 51%, low by international standards.
The graph does not imply or assume anything about causality: it could be that this relationship is due to confounding, for example socio-economic status and parental education is strongly positively associated with the decision to breastfeed. In general though the evidence appears to suggest some positive effect of breastfeeding on cognitive ability. There is extensive research on this topic including work in progress at the Geary Institute by myself and Orla Doyle.

Growing up in Ireland: data analyst/post doc position

Growing Up in Ireland is the National Longitudinal Study of Children. University College Dublin is recruiting a Data Manager-Analyst post-doc as part of a Research Program dedicated to the data.

Applications are made on-line, job reference 004122. The deadline is 6 September 2010. A brief description is below:

This 3-year post-doctoral post arises under the UCD Growing Up in Ireland Research Programme which is currently being designed and initiated in order to promote, coordinate and support research on data now coming on stream from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) Survey – the National Longitudinal Study of Children. The GUI Data Manager-Analyst will act in two main roles:
• a researcher carrying out independent and/or joint research on the GUI data;
• a data manager and technical statistical adviser serving other UCD researchers working on the programme.
The post-holder may also be requested to contribute to postgraduate teaching in UCD directly relevant to the GUI Research Programme. It is envisaged that the post-holder’s working time will be divided approximately as follows: 45 per cent on research, 45 per cent on data management and technical advice and 10 per cent on teaching.
Salary range: €35,000 to €52,000 p.a.
Appointment on the range will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Informal enquiries ONLY to: Professor Tony Fahey, Head, School of Applied Social Science & Coordinator, UCD Growing up in Ireland Research Programme
email: tony.fahey@ucd.ie
phone: + 353 1 716 8231

Geary Working Paper: Van Soest and Kapteyn on Mode and Context Effects

Mode and Context Effects in Measuring Household Assets 

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics

Author Info

Arthur van Soest (Netspar, Tilburg University, RAND)
Arie Kapteyn (RAND)

Abstract

Differences in answers in Internet and traditional surveys can be due to selection, mode, or context effects. We exploit unique experimental data to analyze mode and context effects controlling for arbitrary selection. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) surveys a random sample of the US 50+ population, with CAPI or CATI core interviews once every two years. In 2003 and 2005, random samples were drawn from HRS respondents in 2002 and 2004 willing and able to participate in an Internet interview. Comparing core and Internet survey answers of the same people, we analyze mode and context effects, controlling for selection. We focus on household assets, for which mode effects in Internet surveys have rarely been studied. We find some large differences between the first Internet survey and the other three surveys which we interpret as a context and question wording effect rather than a pure mode effect.

Anchoring Vignettes: Sample Selection Issues and Longitudinal Aspects

Omar Paccagnella from the Dept. of Economics at the University of Padua has a working paper on "Anchoring Vignettes with Sample Selection". The paper aims at extending the standard (hopit) model for estimating vignettes in order to allow the specification of some selection variables.

The concern about sample selection arises from when a respondent in the SHARE (ageing) study completes the main CAPI questionnaire, but does not fill in the extra questions that they have been randomly assigned to - which are anchoring vignettes. Paccagnella states that fitting models to the observed sample ignoring potential selection bias may lead to inconsistent estimates. His findings show that there is evidence of sample selection effects even in the case of high rates of collected vignettes (higher than 85%), but in such cases the bias induced by the selection mechanism is negligible.

Paccagnella also has a working paper in presentation format: on using anchoring vignettes in a longitudinal context, examining work disability reporting from SHARE. This work concludes that when moving from one wave of the SHARE study to the other, that individual thresholds shift upwards and that respondents assess a work limitation less easily in 2006 than in 2004. Also, variations over time in work disability reporting are reported to be much stronger than variations across countries.

Paccagnella has also written on using vignettes to enhance the comparability of self-rated life satisfaction, using the SHARE data. And a paper on voluntary private health insurance for the over-50's, also using the SHARE data.

MESS/LISS

Ive blogged before about the Dutch Measurement and Experimentation in the Social Sciences programme. The panel that underlies this is called LISS. Details of this programme including how to submit proposals to have your questions included on their monthly panel are available below. You can also apply to use the data on their site. This is an absolutely amazing development in social sciences.

http://www.centerdata.nl/en/LISSpanel

Dependent Interviewing

This ISER paper documents the introduction of dependent interviewing in wave 16 of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). Dependent interviewing is a method of designing questions on longitudinal surveys where substantive information, available to the survey organisation prior to the interview, is used to tailor the wording and routing of questions to the respondent's situation or to enable in-interview edit checks.

Could be worth bearing in mind for MESS.