The Potential for Using Combined Survey and Administrative Data Sources to Study Internal Labor Migration
January 2017
Working Paper Number:
CES-17-55
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel data set combining survey data from the American Community Survey (ACS) with administrative data on employment from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics program, in order to study geographic labor mobility. With its rich set of information about individuals at the time of the migration decision, large sample size, and near-comprehensive ability to detect labor mobility, the new combined ACS-LEHD data offers several advantages over the existing data sets that are typically used in the study of migration, such as the Decennial Census, Current Population Survey, and Internal Revenue Service data. An overview of how these different data sets can be employed, and examples demonstrating the usefulness of the newly proposed data set, are provided.
Aggregate statistics and stylized facts are generated from the ACS-LEHD data which reveal many of the same features as the existing data sets, including the decline of aggregate mobility throughout the past decade, as well as many of the known demographic differences in migration propensity.
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data,
work census,
information census,
statistical,
survey,
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employ,
recession,
employment data,
metropolitan,
relocating,
workforce,
econometrician,
residential,
census bureau,
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household surveys,
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National Longitudinal Survey of Youth,
Current Population Survey,
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Unemployment Insurance,
American Community Survey,
Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics,
Quarterly Workforce Indicators,
Social and Economic Supplement,
Core Based Statistical Area,
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