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Support #1868

Use of weights for analysing job quality in UKHLS, Waves 4, 6, 8 and 10

Added by Thomas Stephens about 1 year ago. Updated 4 months ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Normal
Category:
Weights
Start date:
02/25/2023
% Done:

100%


Description

Good afternoon,

I have a few questions about the weights to use for some analysis of job quality which I'm carrying out using Understanding Society. I have read another very useful support response on this (see: https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1739), but this still gives rise to some further questions.

I'm planning on carrying out two distinct types of analysis for my research. Although working conditions data is available in every other wave, note that I exclude wave 2 from my analysis, for reasons I expand on below:
  • Descriptive statistics of changes over time across every other wave, ie comparing Wave 4 vs. 6 vs. 8 vs. 10...;
  • Analysis of pooled data from these waves, to understand the relationship between job quality and various other individual and household characteristics across all of Waves 4, 6, 8, 10.

I have the following questions about which weights to use, and the weighting process in general:

1. Will I have to use two different weights for these two types of analysis? My understanding is that the existing indinub_xw weight (ie just removing the wave prefix) would suffice for the first type of analysis (as per my reading of the Harmonised BHPS user guide, p. 25,
https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/documentation/mainstage/user-guides/bhps-harmonised-user-guide.pdf), but that I will have to do weight rescaling for the pooled analysis to avoid under-representing respondents from later waves. Is this correct?

2. Although I only analyse at every other wave, I have created some new indicators by looking back at data from the wave immediately prior to the respondent's wave (eg I use Wave 3 data to establish whether respondents in Wave 4 have been continuously employed for >1 wave or >2 waves, wave 5 for wave 6, wave 7 for wave 8, etc...). Does this have any bearing on the weight I should rescale to for the pooled analysis?

3. For the above reason, I exclude wave 2 data, as the relevant questions weren't asked in wave 2. Am I correct in assuming that if my pool starts at Wave 4, this means I need to re-scale to Wave 4 rather than Wave 2, using a variation (albeit in R rather than Stata, as that's what I'm using...) of the code you give here: https://iserredex.essex.ac.uk/support/issues/1739? Are there any other issues I need to be aware of?

4. I won't be analysing changes based on calendar years; I'll be keeping respondents in their waves. My reading is that I therefore don't have to carry out the adjustments you outline in p. 10 of your weighting FAQs: https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/documentation/user-guides/mainstage/weighting_faqs.pdf. Is this correct?

5. I haven't seen any discussion of seasonality in the user forum or weighting FAQs. Ie if one wave happens to over-represent people interviewed in later seasons where labour market statistics might be different. Could I check whether your weights account for this?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Best wishes,

Tom

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