National surveys
Survey methodology
Cross-section and longitudinal studies
The surveys included in the analysis cover both cross-sectional and longitudinal
approaches. Some surveys integrate a cross-sectional and longitudinal
analysis. One example is the newly emerging 'European Survey of Income
and Living Conditions' (EU-SILC), which replace the previous 'European
Community Household Panel' (ECHP) which was a pure panel survey, i.e.
the sample
of people selected for the first year of the survey was followed up in
the following annual surveys. The cross-sectional and longitudinal data
were gathered in the same survey and were collected and processed at
the same time. The new EU-SILC will provide two types of annual data
– cross-sectional and longitudinal – that will be treated according to
different timetables. This will improve timeliness as the longitudinal
dimension takes more time in data production.
The Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) is a longitudinal annual
survey that has two components: an employer survey and an employee survey.
The
survey is unique in that employers and employees are linked at the micro
data level; employees are selected from within sampled workplaces. While
the employer sample is longitudinal the employee survey is cross-sectional.
The panel design of surveys such as the 'Australian
Household, Income and Labour Dynamics' (HILDA) in Australia or the German 'Socio-Economic
Panel' (SOEP) covering a broad range of questions concerning working
and non-working life allows us to follow certain causal associations
for
example between work and health, impact of changing family situations,
health and mental effects of unemployment or the impact of the contractual
status of workers following a representative sample over all waves
of the panel.