Disentangling mode-specific selection and measurement bias in social surveys

A large-scale mixed-mode experiment linked to the Dutch Crime Victimization Survey was conducted in 2011. The experiment consisted of two waves; one wave with random assignment to one of the modes web, paper, telephone and face-to-face, and one follow-up wave to the full sample with interviewer modes only.The objective of the experiment is to estimate total mode effects and more specifically the corresponding mode effect components arising from undercoverage, nonresponse and measurement.In this paper, mode-specific selection and measurement bias are defined, and estimators for the bias terms based on the experimental design are introduced and discussed. The proposed estimators are applied to a number of key survey variables from the Labour Force Survey and the Crime Victimization Survey.     

MEASURING LABOR MARKET FRICTIONS: A CROSS‐COUNTRY COMPARISON

In this paper we define and estimate measures of labor market frictions using data on job durations. We compare different estimation methods and different types of data. We propose and apply an unconditional inference method that can be applied to aggregate duration data. It does not require wage data, it is invariant to the way in which wages are determined, and it allows workers to care about other job characteristics. The empirical analysis focuses on France, but we perform separate analyses for the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. We quantify the monopsony power due to search frictions and we examine the policy effects of the minimum wage, unemployment benefits, and search frictions. (JEL: J63, J64)     

CRITICAL PERIODS DURING CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

We identify the ages that constitute sensitive (or critical) periods in children's development towards their adult health status, skills, and human capital. For this, we use data on families migrating into Sweden from countries that are poorer, with less healthy conditions. Late‐life health is proxied by adult height and other adult outcomes. The relation between siblings’ ages at migration and their adult outcomes allows us to estimate the causal effect of conditions at specific childhood ages. We effectively exploit that, for siblings, the migration occurs simultaneously in calendar time but at different developmental stages (ages). We find evidence that the period just before the puberty growth spurt constitutes a critical period for adult height and we find related critical periods for adult cognition, mental health, and education.