Harmonising Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables for Cross-National Comparative Survey Research

This book explains harmonisation techniques that can be used in survey research to align national systems of categories and definitions in such a way that comparison is possible across countries and cultures. It provides an introduction to instruments for collecting internationally comparable data of interest to survey researchers. It shows how seven key demographic and socio-economic variables can be harmonised and employed in European comparative surveys. The seven key variables discussed in detail are: education, occupation, income, activity status, private household, ethnicity, and family. These demographic and socio-economic variables are background variables that no survey can do without. They frequently have the greatest explanatory capacity to analyse social structures, and are a mirror image of the way societies are organised nationally. This becomes readily apparent when one attempts, for example, to compare national education systems. Moreover, a comparison of the national definitions of concepts such as "private household" reveals several different historically and culturally shaped underlying concepts. Indeed, some European countries do not even have a word for{OCLCbr#A0} "private household". Hence such national definitions and categories cannot simply be translated from one culture to another. They must be harmonised. {OCLCbr#A0} {OCLCbr#A0} Acknowledgments 6 General Note 6 Contents 8 List of Abbreviations 12 Country Abbreviations 16 Chapter 1: Harmonising Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables 18 1.1 The Concept of Equivalence 20 1.2 Aim and Structure of the Book 21 Chapter 2: The Harmonisation Process: Harmonisation Is Not Translation 23 2.1 Procedure for the Translation of Survey Questionnaires 23 2.2 Procedure for the Harmonisation of Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables 26 2.3 Rules of Harmonisation 29 Chapter 3: Existing Measurement Instruments for Data Collection 31 3.1 International Standard Classification of Education 32 3.1.1 ISCED 1997 32 3.1.2 ISCED 2011 37 3.1.3 Implementation of ISCED in the European Social Survey 38 3.2 Measurement Instruments Developed by the International Labour Organization 48 3.2.1 The 1958 and 1968 Versions of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) 49 3.2.2 International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 (ISCO-88) 50 3.2.3 ISCO-88 (COM) 52 3.2.4 2008 Revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) 53 3.2.5 ISCO-08 (COM) 53 3.2.6 Other ILO Instruments 54 International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-93) 54 Extended Absences from Work 56 3.3 Academic Instruments 57 3.3.1 Prestige and Socio-Economic Status Scales, and Nominal Class Categories 57 Treiman’s Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale (SIOPS) 57 International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status (ISEI) 58 Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero (EGP) Class Categories 59 3.3.2 The European Socio-Economic Classification (ESeC) 60 3.4 International Standards for the Measurement of Household Income 62 Chapter 4: Background Variables for Cross-National Comparative Research: Data Sources 67 4.1 European Commission and Eurostat Data Sources 67 4.1.1 The Eurydice Network 68 4.1.2 RAMON, Eurostat’s Metadata Server 68 4.1.3 Eurostat Main Tables 69 4.2 European Surveys Conducted by National Statistical Institutes 70 4.2.1 European Community Household Panel (ECHP) 71 4.2.2 EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 73 4.2.3 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) 74 4.2.4 Household Budget Survey (HBS) 76 4.3 The European Commission’s Eurobarometer Surveys 76 4.4 Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) 78 4.5 Data Sources of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 79 4.5.1 2000/2001 Censuses of Population 79 4.5.2 2010/2011 Censuses of Population 80 4.6 Academic Datasets 81 4.6.1 Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) 82 4.6.2 Integrated Public Use Micro Data Series (IPUMS) 84 4.6.3 German Data Forum (RatSWD) 86 4.7 Academically Driven Surveys 88 4.7.1 European Social Survey (ESS) 89 4.7.2 The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 91 4.7.3 European Values Study (EVS) 92 4.7.4 World Values Survey (WVS) 93 4.7.5 Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) 94 Chapter 5: Core Social Variables and Their Implementation in Measurement Instruments 96 5.1 Education 96 5.1.1 Handling Education in National and International Social Surveys 96 Years of Schooling 97 Education Sectors 97 Certificates 98 5.1.2 Cross-National Comparison of Input-Harmonised Instruments for the Measurement of Education 106 Educational Qualifications Classified According to Occupational Prestige 106 CASMIN Educational Classification 108 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-1997) 110 5.1.3 Development of the Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik/Warner Matrix of Education 114 Result: The Measurement Instrument 121 5.2 Labour Status 121 5.2.1 Occupation as an Indicator of Prestige and Socio- 122 Occupation as an Indicator of Prestige 122 Occupation as an Indicator of Socio-Economic Status 123 5.2.2 Handling Labour Status in National and International Surveys 124 Categories for the Measurement of Labour Status in Academically Driven Social Surveys 124 Statistical Categories for the Measurement of Labour Status in Accordance with the ILO’s Labour Force Concept 126 The Implementation of the ILO Labour Force Concept in National Labour Force Surveys 127 Measuring Labour Status in Cross-National Comparative Social Surveys 130 5.2.3 Development of the Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik and Warner Instrument for the Measurement of Labour Status 132 Result: The Measurement Instrument 136 5.3 Occupation and Job 137 5.3.1 Measuring Occupation in Cross-National Social Survey Research 137 The International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) 138 Collection of Occupational Data for Coding to ISCO 139 5.3.2 National Occupational Classifications 141 Germany: Klassifikation der Berufe (KldB) 1975–1992 141 Germany: Klassifikation der Berufe 2010 (KldB-2010) 142 France: Répertoire Opérationnel des Métiers et des Emplois (ROME) 142 5.3.3 Field Coding ISCO-88 143 The Instrument 144 Error Analysis 146 5.3.4 From Professional Status to Job Autonomy 147 Result: The Measurement Instrument 151 5.4 Household Income 152 5.4.1 Comparison of Instruments for the Measurement of Income 152 Measurement Instrument Used for the Cross-National Comparison of Household Income in Round 1 of the ESS 153 The ECHP Measurement Instrument for the Cross-National Comparison of Household Income 154 5.4.2 Quality of Income Measurement 155 Influence of Household Size 155 Respondent’s Level of Knowledge of the Financial Situation of the Household 157 The Main Source of Income in the Household 158 Composition of Household Income 159 Comparison of the Results for Total Net Household Income from the ESS and the ECHP 161 ESS Income Categories Ordered According to the ECHP 5-Percent Percentiles 161 5.4.3 Proposal for an Instrument to Measure Income in Academically Driven Social Surveys 163 Result: The Measurement Instrument 167 5.4.4 Measurement of Income in the Fourth Round of the ESS in 2008 168 5.4.5 Descriptive Characteristics of the European Comparison of Income Distributions 174 Equivalence Scales and Equivalised Household Income 174 Purchasing Power Parities 175 Measures of Inequality of Income Distribution, Poverty Indicators 178 Income Quintile Share Ratio 180 At-Risk-of-Poverty Rate 181 Laeken Indicators 182 5.5 The Private Household 185 5.5.1 The Household Concept in European Official Statistics 185 5.5.2 Determination of Household Membership 190 Definition of Household: A Vignette Experiment 190 ‘Household’ as Defined by Respondents and Interviewers 191 Casimir and Tobi’s Review of Definitions and Use of Household Concept 194 5.5.3 Influence of the Definition of Household on Core Socio- 196 5.5.4 The Definition of Private Household in the ESS 198 5.5.5 Development of an Instrument for the Measurement of Household Size 204 Result: The Measurement Instrument 208 5.6 Ethnicity 208 5.6.1 Handling Ethnicity in National and Cross-National Comparative Social Science Surveys 209 5.6.2 Elements of an Ethnicity Measure 210 Distinguishing Groups According to Legal Rights: Citizenship and Residency Status 210 Ethnic Group Membership 212 Persons with an Immigrant Background 213 Integration of Migrants into the Host Society 214 5.6.3 Development of an Instrument for the Measurement of Citizenship, Residency Status and Immigrant Background 214 Result: The Measurement Instrument 219 5.6.4 Development of an Instrument for the Measurement of Ethnic Background 219 Result: The Measurement Instrument 222 Chapter 6: The Proposed Set of Instruments at a Glance 223 6.1 The Questionnaire 224 6.1.1 Sex 225 6.1.2 Age 225 6.1.3 Legal Marital Status 225 6.1.4 Consensual Union 226 6.1.5 Ethnicity 226 Citizenship 226 Residency Status 228 Country of Birth 228 Ethnic Group Membership 229 Country of Birth of Father and Mother 229 Integration 229 6.1.6 Education 230 6.1.7 Employment 231 6.1.8 Number of Persons in the Household 240 6.1.9 Household Income 242 6.2 Handling the Questionnaire 245 6.2.1 Age 246 6.2.2 Legal Marital Status 246 6.2.3 Consensual Union (De Facto Union) 247 6.2.4 Citizenship 247 6.2.5 Residency Status 247 6.2.6 Ethnic Group Membership 248 6.2.7 Integration 248 6.2.8 Education 248 6.2.9 Employment 249 6.2.10 Number of Persons in the Household 251 6.2.11 Household Income 251 Chapter 7: Comparability of Currently Available Survey Data 253 7.1 Cross-Survey Comparability of the ESS, ISSP, and EVS 254 7.1.1 Education 254 7.1.2 Labour Status 257 7.1.3 Occupation/Job 257 7.1.4 Income 258 7.1.5 Private Household 260 7.1.6 Ethnicity 261 7.2 Comparability Across Eurostat Surveys 263 References 267 Index 282 This book explains harmonisation techniques that can be used in survey research to align national systems of categories and definitions in such a way that comparison is possible across countries and cultures. It provides an introduction to instruments for collecting internationally comparable data of interest to survey researchers. It shows how seven key demographic and socio-economic variables can be harmonised and employed in European comparative surveys. The seven key variables discussed in detail are: education, occupation, income, activity status, private household, ethnicity, and family. These demographic and socio-economic variables are background variables that no survey can do without. They frequently have the greatest explanatory capacity to analyse social structures, and are a mirror image of the way societies are organised nationally. This becomes readily apparent when one attempts, for example, to compare national education systems. Moreover, a comparison of the national definitions of concepts such as "private household" reveals several different historically and culturally shaped underlying concepts. Indeed, some European countries do not even have a word for "private household". Hence such national definitions and categories cannot simply be translated from one culture to another--Résumé de l'éditeur Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Harmonising Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables....Pages 1-5 The Harmonisation Process: Harmonisation Is Not Translation....Pages 7-14 Existing Measurement Instruments for Data Collection....Pages 15-50 Background Variables for Cross-National Comparative Research: Data Sources....Pages 51-79 Core Social Variables and Their Implementation in Measurement Instruments....Pages 81-207 The Proposed Set of Instruments at a Glance....Pages 209-238 Comparability of Currently Available Survey Data....Pages 239-252 Back Matter....Pages 253-274