1 Large-scale Government Surveys Benefits of the data Data covered by ESDS Aspects of the data in research Useful resources

2 Benefits of the large-scale government datasets Good quality data –Produced by experienced research organisations –Usually nationally representative –Large samples with good response rates –Well documented Continuous data –Allows comparison over time –Data is largely cross-sectional Hierarchical data –Intra-household differences –Household effects on individuals

3 ESDS Government Surveys StartedHierarchyProducer Labour Force Survey1973Inds in hhdONS General Household Survey1971Inds in hhdONS Expenditure and Food Survey * 2001Inds in hhdONS Family Resource Survey1993Inds in hhdONS/Natcen ONS Omnibus Survey1990-ONS Survey of English Housing1993-Natcen Health Survey for England1991Inds in hhdNatcen/UCL British Crime Survey1982Crimes/indNatcen British Social Attitudes Survey 1983-Natcen * Amalgamates FES and NFS: Family Expenditure Survey has been running since 1957, The National Food Survey since 1940

4 Using and producing the time series Source: Living in Britain – Results from the General Household Survey file generated from downloadable.xls

5 Percentage of women aged cohabiting General Household Survey

6 Percentage of women cohabiting by legal marital status, General Household Survey

7 Before and after policy analysis Ginn – interested in impact of change in pensions policy in 1988 GHS collects information about pensions as well as socio-demographics & employment Compared data for 1987 with 1993/4 Source Ginn in Gilbert (2001) Researching Social Life

8 Using successive cross- sectional data over time Pros… Reasonable amount of comparability Can pool years/quarters Data is representative at each time point Good at looking at impacts on groups Cons… Limits to continuity in the data (e.g. ethnic) Cannot establish individual change –Cannot look at dynamics –Unlikely to be able to look at individual process (e.g. modelling with predictor variable)

9 Hierarchical data Data: GHS, LFS, EFS, FRS, HSE, SARs (BCS) Other levels – benefit unit, event

10 Use the hierarchy to… Better describe the household –Describe the household context of an individual Look at intra-household differences (& sameness)

11 Describing the household e.g. Is the household deprived / in poverty? Equivalising income (e.g. FRS) –Need information on total income (all members not just Household Reference Person) –Need information on household composition Identifying workless households –E.g. Gregg and Wadsworth (1999)

12 Source: Richard Dickens, Paul Gregg and Jonathan Wadsworth (2000) New Labour and the Labour Market, CMPO Working Paper Series 00/19 Table 5

13 The effect of partnership (mothers)

14 Ethnic homogeneity - % hhold members in same ethnic group as HOH Source 1991 Household SAR

15 How has the data been used? Lists of publications based on the data are available on the UK Data Archive CCSR will be looking for others…

16 Useful Resources UK Data Archive ESDS pages ( ) Documentation Nesstar – data exploration tool Question Bank Documentation, including that for forthcoming surveys Survey Link Scheme

17 National User support and discussion lists (ESDS) ESDS Government helpdesk –E: –T: (0161) ESDS Government JISCmail send the message: subscribe govsurveys to Join the mailing list

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