Innovation Abstracts Volume 8-1 March 1995

Volume 8 Number 1 March 1995
HOUSEHOLD PANEL STUDIES: INVESTIGATING MICRO-SOCIAL CHANGE

David Rose
Household Panel Studies: an Overview

Abstract

Household panel studies are now widely available to researchers in social science and social policy. This paper discusses the rationale, advantages, mechanics and problems of household panel studies. In the first part of the article, household panels are placed in their social, methodological, scientific and policy contexts. The next two sections deal respectively with design and analysis issues. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the existing national and international panels and their role as social scientific ‘observatories’.

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Graham Kalton and Constance F. Citro
Panel Surveys: Adding the Fourth Dimension

Abstract

Surveys across time can serve many objectives. The first half of the paper reviews the abilities of alternative survey designs across time - repeated surveys, panel surveys, rotating panel surveys and split panel surveys - to meet these objectives. The second half concentrates on panel surveys. It discusses the decisions that need to be made in designing a panel survey, the problems of wave nonresponse, time-in-sample bias and the seam effect, and some methods for the longitudinal analysis of panel survey data.

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Lidia Barreiros
The European Community Household Panel (ECHP): its Design, Scientific and Policy Purposes

Abstract

One key objective of the European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP) is to develop socio-economic research as an aid to policy in the Community in the field of household income and living conditions based on:

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Marcia Freed Taylor and Gaston Schaber
An Integrated Longitudinal Database for Comparative Analysis: the Panel Comparability Project

Abstract

The paper will discuss the problems and challenges facing researchers attempting to carry out comparative studies across a number of countries and across time, trace the development of a number of projects designed to meet these challenges, and then focus on one particular innovative project based on the existing household panel studies, the Panel Comparability (PACO) project. PACO is designed to create a harmonised longitudinal database of comparable variables for a variety of research purposes. A description of the project’s development, coverage, and methodology will highlight the analytic potential of the PACO database.

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Jacqueline Scott
Using Household Panels to Study Micro-Social Change

Abstract

This paper provides an introduction to the research potential of household panel studies in general and the British Household Panel, in particular. It will discuss the relative strengths of longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis. Panel studies, however, are only one type of longitudinal design and the advantages and disadvantages of panels are discussed, in comparison to repeated cross sections and retrospective designs. Panel studies have a number of analytical advantages. First they make it possible to distinguish transitory and persistent phenomena, and to disaggregate net change. Second, panel data can help disentangle ambiguities in causal relations by providing temporal ordering. Third, they allow researchers to take into account the timing (in terms of age, or life-course stage) and the duration of conditions and experiences, both of which are crucial for understanding social continuity and change. Household panels have the additional feature of collecting personal data from each adult member. This enables analysts to explore the strong inter-dependencies of family choices and constraints; to investigate the impact of various life events on household members; and to examine the contextual processes that determine individual transitions, life trajectories and inter-generational change.

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Henk-Jan Dirven and Jos Berghman
The Evolution of Income Poverty in the Netherlands: Results from the Dutch Socio-Economic Panel Survey

Abstract

This contribution gives a description of the evolution of income poverty in the Netherlands during the late 1980s. The results show that 9.2% of the population lived below the legal poverty line in 1988 and 14.7% below the Subjective Poverty Line. Income poverty appeared to be strongly related to the socio-economic group of the head of household and the main source of income in the household. Reflecting the increase in income inequality in the Netherlands during the late 1980s, an overall increase in the incidence of income poverty was observed during the 1986-1988 period. An analysis of longitudinal patterns of income poverty shows that, although 15 to 20% of the population (depending on the poverty definition used) lived below the income poverty line in at least one year during the 1986-1988 period, a minority of this group was poor the entire period. Mobility rates out of income poverty thus appear to be rather high.

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Jürgen Schupp and Gert G. Wagner
The German Socio-Economic Panel: a Database for Longitudinal International Comparisons

Abstract

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István György Tóth
The First Two Waves of the Hungarian Household Panel: Methods and Results

Abstract

The Hungarian Household Panel started in 1992 with a representative sample of Hungarian Households. The first part of the paper gives a non-technical overview of the design, methods, research questions and possible uses of the study. The second part overviews some of the analytical work undertaken on the dataset and uses illustrative data on labour market changes, incomes, inequalities and poverty.

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