Journal of Economic and Social Measurement - Volume 44, issue 2-3

Authors: Ikudo, Akina | Lane, Julia I. | Staudt, Joseph | Weinberg, Bruce A.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Characterizing people’s occupations is important for both policy and research. However, as large scale administrative records are increasingly being used to describe labor market activity, it will become important to find new automated approaches to describing occupations. We apply new machine learning techniques to new sources of data and investigate the potential of using algorithms to classify occupations. We find that job titles are both inherently noisy and inconsistent across organizations, but a subset of them can be assigned algorithmically, with little impact on accuracy.

Keywords: Machine learning, occupations, UMETRICS, administrative data

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-190463

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 44, no. 2-3, pp. 57-87, 2019

Authors: Felettigh, Alberto | Giordano, Claire

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A country’s price competitiveness is generally proxied by the real effective exchange rate of its currency. In this article we present a novel three-market breakdown (domestic, euro-area and non-euro area markets) of this measure, with an application to the four main euro-area countries. Price-competitiveness developments are indeed found to be heterogeneous across markets, thereby confirming the usefulness of this decomposition. In particular, we find that in the 1999–2018 period only Germany recorded comparable (large) gains in both euro and non-euro area markets. France posted a larger gain, and Spain marked a smaller loss, in euro-area markets; conversely, Italy’s mild improvement …was greater in non-euro area markets. Finally, competitiveness in the domestic market and that in non-euro area markets are found to be the main, equally important, drivers of overall developments since 1999 in Italy and in Germany. Show more

Keywords: Price-competitiveness indicators, real effective exchange rates, producer prices, destination markets, import competition

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-190466

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 44, no. 2-3, pp. 89-116, 2019

Authors: Hurd, Michael D. | Meijer, Erik | Moldoff, Michael | Rohwedder, Susann

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Survey measures of household wealth often incorporate measurement error. The resulting excess variability in the first difference in wealth makes meaningful statistical inference difficult on changes in household-level wealth. We study the effects of two methods intended to reduce this problem: Asset verification confronts respondents with large discrepancies between wealth reports from the current wave and from the previous wave. Cross-wave imputation uses adjacent wave information in the imputation procedures for missing data. In the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, the corrections from asset verification substantially reduced wave-to-wave changes in wealth. The cross-wave imputations also reduced variation, but …to a lesser extent. Show more

Keywords: Wealth measurement, imputation, panel data, survey design

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-190465

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 44, no. 2-3, pp. 117-139, 2019

Authors: Uriarte, Juan I. | Ramírez Muñoz de Toro, Gonzalo R. | Larrosa, Juan M.C.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: We describe a case of web scraping data-based price indices implemented in a mid-size city in a moderate inflationary country. Full consumer price (CPI) and construction cost (CCI) indices were implemented for an entire city obtaining efficient results compared to statistics using traditional data collection methods. We state that web scraping combined with big data techniques will allow estimating more individualized and efficient metrics comparable in quality to official statistics. Web scraping technologies empower civil society and small research groups alike by allowing them gather and interpret socioeconomic data. It also helps to create new dimensions of analysis by allowing …changes in frequency and focus on specific groups of products and services. Show more

Keywords: Big data applications, heterogeneous data sources, web scrapping, inflation, Argentina

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-190464

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 44, no. 2-3, pp. 141-159, 2019

Authors: Kposowa, Augustine | Baker, Jack | Swanson, David A.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is an important population health statistic often used as one of the indicators of the health status of a nation. In many countries lacking adequate vital registration systems, sample methods are used to estimate IMRs. However, evaluations of this approach are rare and the literature contains no assessments of the stochastic uncertainty underlying these estimated IMRs. Stochastic uncertainty reflects the fact that even where the underlying IMR is constant in a small population over time, there is a likelihood of yearly fluctuation in its empirical observations even if it is measured from a complete count …of the events of interest. In this study a method is presented that can be used to assess this stochastic uncertainty. We use the country of Ghana as a case study for this purpose. The method, a beta-binomial model, is described, tested for validity, and illustrated using 2014 sample-based estimates of IMR for 13 sample regions in Ghana. As such, the approach we described regarding the revision of sample-based IMR estimates is aimed at taking into account of the stochastic uncertainty while preserving the information concerning the uncertainty due to sampling. In applying the method to Ghana, we find that the sample-based IMR estimates perform well in accounting for stochastic uncertainty and could be applied elsewhere. Show more

Keywords: Representational data, estimate, Beta Binomial model, validity

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-190462

Citation: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 44, no. 2-3, pp. 161-175, 2019