Utilising longitudinally linked data from the British Labour Force Survey - ARCHIVED

The British Labour Froce Survey (LFS) uses a rotating sample design, with each sample household retained for five consecutive quarters. Linking together the information on the same persons across quarters produces a potentially very rich source of longitudinal data. There are however serious risks of distortion in the results from such longitudinal linking, mainly arising from sample attrition, and from response errors, which can produce spurious flows between economic activity states. This paper describes the initial results of investigations by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) into the nature and extent of the problems.