Reliability of retrospective job history data: a comparison of the private economy and the public sector based on panel data

Becker, Rolf (2001). Reliability of retrospective job history data: a comparison of the private economy and the public sector based on panel data. ZUMA Nachrichten, 25(49), pp. 29-56. Gesis

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The study investigates the reliability of retrospective data respondents provided about their occupational careers. De Graaf and Wegener (1989) found that respondents employed in the public sector provided less reliable answers about their career than did employees in the private sector. The institutional context in which civil servants operate may make it more difficult for them to reconstruct the course of their career and the number of different jobs they have held. Empirical analyses of Panel data confirm this hypothesis with respect to the number of jobs held. At the same time, data from respondents in the civil service about other aspects of their occupational career are as accurate and reliable as data from respondents in the private sector. The Problem of recall with civil servants thus seems to relate only to the number of jobs held in the course of their occupational career. This should be taken into account by researchers collecting event-history data about an the occupational careers.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Education > Sociology of Education
UniBE Contributor:	Becker, Rolf
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
ISSN:	0721-8516
Publisher:	Gesis
Language:	German
Submitter:	Rolf Becker
Date Deposited:	30 Jul 2014 16:56
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:30
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/44566