Study Name: British Household Panel Study (BHPS)

Study Directors: Nick Buck and Jonathan Gershuny

Principal Investigators:

Host Organization: UK Longitudinal Studies Centre, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex

Year Initiated: 1991

 

Governance

 

-                      Funding sources

 

The core BHPS activity is fully funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.  Eurostat, through the UK Office for National Statistics funds the low income supplement, and the survey in Northern Ireland.  The UK Health Education Authority funded the survey of 11-15 year olds.

 

-                      Host organization

 

The study is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.

 

-            Governing body and role of external research advisors

 

At the time of the initial design of the survey set of six topic based advisory groups were established to represent the range of social science academic and policy interests.  These were consolidated into a single advisory board with around thirty members.  In 1996 this was replaced with a smaller Scientific Advisory Committee, with 10 academic members, subject to rotation.  With the establishment of the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre in 1999, a National Strategy Committee for Longitudinal Studies was established by ESRC to develop a strategy for the range of different longitudinal studies in the UK, and to make recommendations for future developments of the BHPS.

 

Sample Design

 

-                      Sample selection

 

The initial BHPS sample was based on an equal probability sample of addresses in Great Britain (excluding the sparsely populated areas of northern Scotland).  This sample was drawn from the UK Postcode Address File, and contained 250 equal size clusters, stratified by region and a number of socio-economic variables.  The sample yielded approximately 5,500 households at the first wave.  Interviews were attempted with all adult members of these households, yielding 9912 full interviews.

 

In 1994, a new panel was established by the UK Office for National Statistics to provide data for the European Community Household Panel, with a similar overall sample design.  This panel was closed down in 1997, owing to insufficient funding, and BHPS began providing data for ECHP.  However Eurostat continued to fund a sub-sample of  1000 low income households, and 140 households from Northern Ireland from this panel which were added to the main BHPS sample, and used the BHPS questionnaire.

 

In 1999, in response to devolution of government institutions in the UK, the ESRC funded the first wave of new samples of 1500 households in each of Scotland and Wales, to permit independent analysis of these territories.  Discussions are still ongoing on future funding of these extensions, as well as a further extension sample in Northern Ireland.  There is also interest from the UK government in a larger overall boost of BHPS sample size.

 

-           Follow rules

 

All members of initial sample households and their natural descendents are followed, along with all parents of sample children born after the start of the panel.

 

-            Oversampling

 

Oversampling of low-income households, and of Scotland and Wales is noted above.

 

-           Weights and attrition bias

 

The sample is re-weighted every wave.

 

-           Sample “refreshing”

 

There have as yet been no sample refreshments, though, as noted above, there are proposals for a large sample boost.

 

Content

 

BHPS content covers the following domains: demographic and household characteristics, household organisation, labour market, health, education, housing and consumption, income, social and political values.  Variable components have been used to collect data on lifetime demographic and work histories, wealth and debt, ICT usage, neighbourhood characteristics and affiliation.

 

The questionnaire was designed after systematic consultation with both scientific and policy users.  Some new core questions have been introduced in order to maximise comparability with ECHP.

 

An extensive content review and consultation was carried out in 1998-99.  This suggested only minimal changes to core questionnaires, and established an agenda for variable component issues over the next few years.

 

Collection

 

-           Mode

 

The BHPS was collected in face-to-face interviews using paper and pencil questionnaires between 1991 and 1998.  This included both interviewer administered questionnaires and a short self-completion.  From 1994, a self-completion survey, using an audio tape was introduced for 11 – 15 year olds.  In 1999 computer assisted personal interviewing was introduced for main instruments..

 

-            Instrument design (paper and pencil, CATI, EHC)

 

The study first used computer-assisted personal interviewing in 1999.  Coversheets and self-completions are still collected on paper.

 

-            Dependent interviewing

 

Little.  Previous year household composition and basic demographic data is fed-forward.

 

-            Calendar year, survey year and point of survey measures

 

The survey uses a mixture of point of survey measures and survey year (September-August) measures.

 

Processing

 

-           Family composition editing

 

Family composition editing and the production of ‘Ego-alter’ files has been a regular feature of BHPS editing since Wave One.

 

-            Production of specialized files

 

In addition to main BHPS files, supplementary files have included a consolidated cross-wave job history, incorporating the lifetime job and employment status histories carried out in Wave Two and Three; and derived files containing computed post-tax income.

 

-           Data and documentation standards

The data processing system has been developed to separate post-field cleaning and editing, and production of a data set to maximise research usability.  Features such as cross-wave standardised variable naming have both increased data set usability, particularly for multi-wave analyses, and also introduced significant processing efficiencies.  Final consolidated data sets and documentation are released within about six months of the end of fieldwork.

 

 

Dissemination

 

-            Dissemination techniques (CD, web)

 

BHPS data are currently released through the UK Data Archive, who provide the data in a number of formats, including CD.  The data are also available online for analysis at the University of Manchester Computing Centre, along with a number of other major UK data sets.  We are currently exploring mechanisms for downloading customised data sets over the web.  Full documentation is currently browsable over the web.

 

-           Virtual data centers and functionalities

 

 

 

-            Improving contractual use of data (confidentiality and encryption)

 

We are still exploring mechanisms for enabling analysis of confidential data, especially neighbourhood indicators.

 

-            Comparability of formats (evolution of data standards)

 

BHPS data structures are design to be sufficiently simple to be independent of software format of release.  This issue is under review, given the potential complexities arising with increasing number of waves, and the addition of sub-samples.

 

-                      Value of joint multinational analysis projects

 

BHPS is involved in a number of projects to produce international comparative data, including the ECHP itself, which allows comparative analysis of 14 European countries, the Cornell Cross-National Equivalence files, and the CHER project run from Luxembourg.