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Australian Labour Force Data: How Representative is the ‘Population Represented by the Matched Sample’?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Robert Dixon
Robert Dixon*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Melbourne
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Abstract

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This paper investigates two related matters. First, what proportion of the population is represented by the matched sample (i.e. by the gross flows data) in the Labour Force Survey, why is this proportion what it is and why does it vary over time? Second, given that around 20% of the population are not represented in the matched sample, how representative are labour market indices derived from the matched sample data and, if biases are present, what is the source and what are the implications of the bias?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , December 2001 , pp. 303 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2001

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Jim Thomson and two referees for very helpful comments. The first part of the paper relies heavily upon the description of the LFS and of the Gross Flows data given in various ABS publications.

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