Applying Event History Methods in a National Panel:
The Design and Use of Event History Calendars
in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
April Beaule and Frank Stafford
Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center
University of Michigan
www.psidonline.org
Research Questions
• Can we increase data quality with EHC‟s?
• What EHC applications have there been in
PSID? Motivated partly by biennial „97 on.
• Pre 2003 Methods Work – GUI „conversation‟
• Much Summarized in Belli Stafford and Alwin,
Calendar and Time Diary Methods, Sage, 2009
• Recent PSID designs
• Data Quality Checks Early Childhood and
Employment EHC‟s
RESIDENTIAL TIMELINE
Vintage 2003-2007
PSID EHC (03-07)
PSID 2003 EHC instrument
From 2005/03(04/02)
ONE YEAR BACK
1
0.98
0.96
Proportion
0.94
0.92
0.9
0.88
0.86
0.84
0.82
jan_2
feb_1
feb_3 mar_2 apr_1
apr_3 may_2 june_1 june_3
jul_2
aug_1 aug_3 sep_2
oct_1
oct_3
nov_2 dec_1 dec_3
Third of month
Men 2002
Men 2004
Women 2002
Women 2004
FROM NEW 2009 EHC ALIGNMENT OF UNEPLOYMENT SPELLS
AND RECEIPT OF UI FORM THE INCOME SECTION
Difference Between 1st Month Received Unemp. Comp. and 1st Month Unemployed
Where 1st Month Unemp. January - June 2008
By Proxy Status
(N=151)
80
70
60
54
50
Count
Self
Proxy
40
30
20
20
23
10
0
1
1
1
1
4
1
-5
-3
-2
-1
9
0
1
4
3
7
4
2
1
2
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
Months Difference
2
7
8
4
9
1
10
3
11
2007 CHILD HEALTH HISTORY CALENDAR FOR
ADULTS compared with PCG REPORTS 1997 - ASTHMA
In both CDS I and
2007 Core (247)
PCG Reports No Asthma
(218)
Calendar No or DK (199, 2)
PCG Reports Asthma
(29)
Core 2007 Yes
(18)
Core Yes (17)
Age Compatible (10)
Contradict (7)
Core 2007
No (11)
2007 and 2009 CHILD HEALTH HISTORY CALENDAR
HEALTH HISTORY SCREENING QUESTION
NEW 2009 EMPLOYMENT EHC
CHECKING FOR GAPS
DATA INTEGRITY CROSS-CHECK TIMELINES
INCORRECT REPORTING OF TIME AWAY –
“VACATION SPELL”
FUZZY (?) DATES OR DEFINITE (#) DATES?
Summary Indicators
BOILING IT DOWN TO SUMMARY DATA
May
1
June
2
3
1
July
2
3
1
TOTWSKJob
2
3
Job 1
4*1.45=5.8
Job 2
5*1.45=7.25
Job 3
3*1.45=4.35
WTR
Num
Num
Num
Num
Overlap
Concur
Unique
Thirds
Weeks
1
3 (Blue)
4 (Pink)
7
7*1.45=10.15
Rounded
10
TO SUMMARIZE,…
• USED EHC‟s OVER 2 YEAR RETRO
(LABOR MARKET)
• FROM EARLY LIFE COURSE
(CHILDHOOD HEALTH CALENDAR)
• IMPROVING DATA QUALITY AT THE
INTERVIEW (GRAPHICS, FLEXIBILTY)
• DESIGN FOR EX POST PROCESSING
• LEARNING EXPERIENCE THRU TIME
• PRE-LOAD END DATES FOR LABOR
MARKET?
THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!