Support #2137
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Help with Mother's Age and Employment History Variables
Added by Martina Ponassi 4 months ago.
Updated 4 months ago.
Category:
Derived variables
Description
Good morning.
As a research assistant, I am currently working on a projects concerning the child penalty of mothers, i.e. studying whether the birth of a child leads female employment and wages to decrease and never reach the previous level. I am using the harmonized BHPS-Usoc data, but I need a clarification about the availability of some information I need.
1. Mother's Age at First Childbirth: I need to extract the mother's age at the birth of her first child but can’t seem to find this info. The only plausible variable is maagyb (Age of mother when R was born), but it is present only in wave BH13. Any other suggestion? Or should I just generate myself the variable?
2. Employment History: I would like a variable that I could use as a proxy of the mother's working/employment history. I'm considering using basrate (basic pay hourly rate) and fimnlabgrs_dv (total monthly labor income gross) to track employment history. Would these be the best options, or is there something better suited?
Thank you in advance!
Martina
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Hello Martina,
1.
In the file "xwavedat" (when you download the data this file is in the subfolder ukhls), you will find the variables:
ch1by_dv: Year of birth of first child
ch1bm_dv: Month of birth of first child
You can use these variables and the date of birth of the respondent, doby_dv and dobm_dv to get their age at first birth
Please note,
ch1by_dv doby_dv are available in the End User License version of the data, SN6614 (https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6614)
ch1by_dv, doby_dv, dobm_dv & ch1bm_dv are available in the Special License version, SN6931 (https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6931)
2. What information about the mother's employment history do you need? If you wanted to get their complete employment history you can use the syntax files produced by Liam Wright (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/user-deposited-syntax/working-life-histories/) or the updated version produced by Jennifer Smith (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/syntax/user-deposited-syntax/labour-market-flows/)
Hope this helps. If you have further questions, please let us know.
Best wishes,
Understanding Society User Support Team
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Thank you, that is really helpful. I have still one doubt: What if I use birthy instead of doby_dv? What is the difference?
Best regards,
Martina
- Category changed from Data analysis to Derived variables
Deart Martina,
We recommend using doby_dv - it is a derived variable for which we have run some additional data checks, so it should be "cleaner", have less inconsistencies etc.
Best wishes,
UKHLS User Support
Good morning,
I apologize for reaching out again, but I was hoping you could provide further clarification. The syntax files for constructing employment history were incredibly helpful, and I’m now exploring the possibility of creating a pregnancy history using SN6614, including the birth order of children.
If you have any suggestions or resources that could assist with this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you very much for your continued support.
Best regards,
Martina
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