TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hamermesh,Daniel S.
TI  - Data Difficulties in Labor Economics
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 2622
PY  - 1988
Y2  - June 1988
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2622
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2622.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daniel S. Hamermesh
Department of Economics
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1173
Tel: 512/475-8526
Fax: 512/471-3510
E-Mail: hamermes@eco.utexas.edu
M1  - published as Daniel S. Hamermesh. "Data Difficulties in Labor Economics," in Ernst R. Berndt and Jack E. Triplett, editors, "Fifty Years of Economic Measurement: The Jubilee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth" University of Chicago Press (1990)

AB  - This essay sets out a framework for evaluating empirical work in terms of the ability of the data to provide adequate parameter estimates and hypothesis tests about the true underlying structure. Problems of aggregation, representativeness and structural change are discussed in detail. These criteria are applied to evaluate studies of labor supply, labor demand, local labor markets and union goals. Empirical work in labor supply has made the greatest strides because of the appropriateness of the data to answer questions of interest. Studies in the other areas have not made so much progress and will not until the same resources are devoted to collecting longitudinal microeconomic data on firms as have been spent on collecting longitudinal household data.
ER  -