Labfam Individual Biographies (LIB): Harmonised Family and Employment Histories Based on Panel Surveys

Ewa Weychert , University of Warsaw
Beata Osiewalska, University of Warsaw (1); Cracow University of Economics (2)
Lucas van der Velde, University of Warsaw
Anna Matysiak, University of Warsaw

This research introduces a new way to harmonise longitudinal databases that pays attention to individual life-course trajectories. Concretely, we construct spell data for individuals along three different life dimensions: fertility, which records the number and timing of births; partnership, which records the timing of union formation and dissolution; and employment, which collects data on employment spells and characteristics of the jobs held, when available. This information is drawn from available longitudinal surveys, utilising their panel components, calendar modules and retrospective questionnaires. We harmonise biographies from the longest-running longitudinal databases such as Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), the United Kingdom (BHPS and UKHLS), Switzerland (SHP), and the United States (PSID). The LIB project is part of a larger endeavour to lower the entry barriers for other researchers. The resulting databases are compatible with earlier harmonisation projects like the CNEF (Cross-National Equivalent File) (Frick et al., 2007) and CPF (Comparative Panel File) (Turek et al., 2021)). To some extent, our databases are also comparable to the harmonisation work of Perelli-Harris et al. (2015), who recovered partnership and fertility histories from retrospective questions in the Gender and Generations Survey. Following the examples of CPF, we provide open-source codes which allow the construction of harmonised biographies. This approach offers users greater flexibility in selecting the period, set of countries and the dimension of individual biographies to be analysed. To showcase the potential of our database, we investigate women's employment and birth transitions, demonstrating how the relationship varies across countries, time and cohorts.

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 Presented in Session 13. Flash session Data Infrastructures for Population Research