Volume 36, Number 3 (Summer) 2001
Romeo, Charles J.. 2001. "Controlling for Seam Problems in Duration Model Estimates with Application to the Current Population Survey and the Computer Aided Telephone Interview/ Computer Aided Personal Interview Overlap Survey" Journal of Human Resources 36(3):467-499.
Inconsistencies in duration data at the "seams" between surveys make the problem of determining where one spell ends and the next begins impossible to resolve with certainty. In this paper I develop a statistical approach to partitioning data records with inconsistent duration data. The basis of this paper is a set of definitions as to what establishes consistent reporting at each seam. These definitions are derived from the questionnaire, and they enable me to quantify duration data inconsistencies as errors. The errors are then employed to generate probabilities over data record partitions. A duration model that uses these probabilities to control for seam problems is estimated for both the Current Population Survey and the Computer Aided Telephone Interview/ Computer Aided Personal Interview Overlap Survey.
Dr. Charles Romeo is a senior researcher in the Economic Analysis Group of the U.S. Department of Justice. He thanks participants at the National Bureau of Economic Research Conference on Data Quality for their comments, with special thanks to Tom MaCurdy. He also greatly appreciates the efforts of two anonymous referees. This research was supported in part by a Research Fellowship at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He thanks Shail Butani for the data. The views expressed in the article are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of either the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Department of Justice. Data is available beginning October 2002 through September 2005 from Dr. Charles Romeo, Economic Analysis Group U.S. Department of Justice, 600 E. Street NW-Suite 1000, Washington DC 20530.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X