Fun with matched firm-employee data: Progress and road maps

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit company supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. With the beginnings of a worldwide burgeoning development of matched firm-employee data, it is worthwhile to examine the possibilities for using these data. This essay discusses a variety of areas in which some progress has been made and presents ideas for future research in a number of others, including the study of labor demand, search and unemployment, wage determination and time use. It concludes that such data could be as important for labor economics, and for generating new knowledge about labor markets, as have been longitudinal household datasets, but with existing restrictions on access this kind of success will be difficult to achieve.JEL Classification: J2, J3

Effects of educational mismatch on private returns to education: An analysis of the Spanish case (1995–2006)

“…One of the main features of the WSS is the availability of matched employer-worker microdata, which is particularly useful for the study of wage determination (Abowd & Kramarz, 1999;Hamermesh, 2008). In this sense, the WSS provides comprehensive information on firms with ten or more workers (WSS 2006 also includes firms with fewer than ten workers), classified in one of the following productive sectors: industry, construction, trade, catering, transport and communications, financial intermediation, real estate and leasing, business services, and, with the exception of WSS 1995, education, health, and other social activities.…”

The gender gap in earnings: an international comparison with European matched employer–employee data

“…Moreover, it is the only international database that is currently available with matched employer-employee data. This type of data has enabled fundamental progress to be made in the understanding of wage determination in general and of the origin of the gender wage gap in particular (Hamermesh, 2008 andKramarz, 1999). Thus, cross-country comparisons are developed on a strictly comparable basis with a wealth of harmonised information.…”

A Matched Employer-Employee Panel Data Set for Austria: 2002-2005

“…to compare the productivity levels of enterprises with different age structures and other characteristics of their employees, but also to control for possible firm-specific effects such as size and age of the firm or type of organisation (multi-plant vs. single-plant firms) etc. An excellent review of further potential applications is given in Hamermesh (2007). As argued in Abowd and Kramarz (1999a) these data sets provide the empirical foundation of refinements in the theory of production and in workplace organisation.…”