An introduction to the Economic and Social Data Service ESDS Beate Lichtwardt, ESDSUK Data Archive M

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An introduction to the Economic and Social
Data Service (ESDS)Beate Lichtwardt, ESDS/UK
Data ArchiveModule ec831, University of Essex
3 December 2009
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Why ?

• Maybe you want your final-year project to
• become a publication in the Essex Economics
  Students' Journal (EESJ)
• win an annual prize awarded by the Department
  of Economics for the best undergraduate research
  project
• be an interesting research project enhancing
  your analytical and research skills using
  secondary data analysis

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Where to look for relevant project data ?

• First point of reference
• ESDSwww.esds.ac.uk/Lucene/Search.aspx
• If requested data available from other than ESDS
  data catalogue, user support team will acquire
  data on your behalf - from the depositor - from
  other archives

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Data catalogue search
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ESDS - overview

• www.esds.ac.uk
• national data archiving and dissemination
  service, managed by the UK Data Archive which
  recently celebrated its 42nd anniversary
• ESDS provides access and specialist support for
  key economic and social data resources
• running from 1 January 2003

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ESDS - overview

• Jointly supported by
• ESRC - Economic and Social Research Council
• JISC - Joint Information Systems Committee
• Partners
• UKDA - UK Data Archive, Essex
• MIMAS - Manchester Information and Associated
• Services, Manchester
• CCSR - Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and
  
• Survey Research, Manchester
• ISER - Institute for Social and Economic
• Research, Essex

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ESDS holdings

• Data for research and teaching purposes and used
  in all sectors and for many different disciplines

• 6,000 datasets in the collection
• 230 new datasets added each year
• Over 46,000 registered users
• Approximately 60,000 downloads worldwide
  p.a.
• 3000 user support queries

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Types of collections

• Surveys
• Censuses
• Registers
• Aggregate statistics
• Text (digital) and images
• Audio and visual data

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Types of data

• Government Large-scale government surveys
• InternationalMulti-nation aggregate databanks
  and survey data
• Longitudinal Major UK surveys following
  individuals over time
• Qualitative
• Range of multimedia qualitative data sources
  (in-depth and semi-structured interviews, focus
  groups, oral histories, mixed methods data,
  records of meetings, diaries audio and video)

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Sources of data

• Official agencies - mainly central government
• International statistical time series
• Individual academics - research grants
• Market research agencies
• Public records/historical sources
• Access to international data via links with other
  data archives worldwide

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Links with other archives
CESSDA Council of European Social Science Data
Archives Non-European ICPSR,ASSDA
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Specialist data services

• ESDS Government
• ESDS International
• ESDS Longitudinal
• ESDS Qualidata
• provide
• dedicated web sites
• data and documentation enhancements
• user support
• training and information on events

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Large-scale government data

• General Household Survey
• Labour Force Survey
• Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland
• Expenditure and Food Survey
• British Crime Survey
• Family Resources Survey
• ONS Omnibus Survey
• Survey of English Housing
• British Social Attitudes
• National Travel Survey
• Time Use Survey

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Benefits of the large-scale government data

• Good quality data
• - produced by experienced research organisations
• - usually nationally representative with large
  samples
• - good response rates
• - very well documented
• Continuous data
• - allows comparison over time
• - data is largely cross-sectional
• Hierarchical data
• - intra-household differences
• - household effects on individuals

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Longitudinal data

• Longitudinal surveys involve repeated surveys of
  the same individuals at different points in time
• Allow researchers to analyse change at the
  individual level
• More complex to manage and analyse

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Longitudinal studies

• National Child Development Study (NCDS)
• British Cohort Study 1970 (BCS 70)
• Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
• Families and Children Study (FACS)
• Longitudinal Study of Young People in England
• (LSYPE)
• British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

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British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

• Collected and deposited by ISER, here at Essex
• Follows the members of 5500 households first
  sampled in 1991 - interviews conducted annually
• Panel survey, repeated questions allows change to
  be tracked
• Coverage includes
• income, labour market behaviour, social and
• political values, health, education, housing
• and household organisation

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British Birth Cohort Studies

• Impact of childhood conditions on later life and
  understanding children and families in the UK
  lifecourse study
• National Child Development Study follows a cohort
  born in a single week in 1958
• 1970 British Cohort Study follows a cohort born
  in a single week in 1970
• Millennium Cohort Study focuses on children born
  in 2000/2001

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International macro and micro data

• ESDS International is split into two types of
  data
• Aggregate or macrodata are data that has been
  aggregated to a country or regional level. This
  type of data is typically produced by
  inter-governmental organisations like the UN or
  World Bank. All the aggregate databanks contain
  time series data.
• Survey or microdata are data about individuals.
  This type of data is typically produced by an
  organisation in the academic sector and looks at
  values and attitudes.

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International macro data

• Regularly updated macro-economic time series
  datasets from selected major international
  statistical databanks that collectively chart
  over 50 years of global economic, industrial and
  political change
• International Monetary Fund
• OECD
• United Nations
• World Bank
• Eurostat
• International Labour Organisation
• UK Office for National Statistics

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International data themes

• Databanks cover
• economic performance and development
• trade, industry and markets
• employment
• demography, migration and health
• governance
• human development
• social expenditure
• education
• science and technology
• land use and the environment

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Example from UN COMTRADE, 2008
Graph Celia Russell
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Future developments
Source World Bank
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Source World Bank
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International microdata

• ESDS International holds, and guides users
  towards accessing, several
• key international survey datasets, including
• European Foundation for the Improvement of
  Living and Working Conditions datasets
  (Eurofund collection)
• Eurobarometers (EB)
• European Social Survey (ESS)
• International Social Survey Programme (ISSP
• European and World Values Surveys (EVS, WVS)
• European Election Study (EES)
• Latinobarómetro (LB)
• Young Lives (YL)
• Other regional barometers (Afrobarometer, Arab
  Barometer, AsiaBarometer and Asian Barometer
  Survey)

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International data via other national archives
ESDS International at the UK Data Archive
(UKDA) can help users to locate and acquire data
from other archives within Europe and worldwide,
using a series of reciprocal agreements with the
individual institutions.
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International data via other national archives

• Datasets include
• Eurobarometers - EB (ZA/Germany)
• International Social Survey Programme - ISSP
  (ZA/Germany)
• Other data via other national data archives, such
  as- World Tables of Economic and Social
  Indicators, 1950-1992 (ICPSR/ US)-
  Macro-Economic Time Series for the United States,
  United Kingdom, Germany and France Income and
  Employment, 1820-1970 (ICPSR/ US) etc.

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Secondary analysis potential

• Descriptive/background population information
• Comparative research, re-study or follow-up study
• Secondary analysis
• Verification
• Research design and methodology

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Data Access

• Web access to data and metadata
• Data are freely available for use in higher
  education institutions
• Data supplied in a variety of formats
• - statistical package formats (e.g. SPSS, STATA)
• - databases and spreadsheets
• - word processed documents, PDF documents etc.

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Accessing data - overview

• Register with ESDS via UK Federation using your
  university username and password
• Agree to an End User Licence (EUL)
• Select the desired data from the Data Catalogue
  by clicking on the Download/Order button
• Specify a project for which the data is to be
  used
• Then - download the data to local machine
  selecting your preferred format (SPSS, STATA, TAB
  etc.)or- place an order for the data (SC, if no
  online agreement SL) and complete all relevant
  forms

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Online analysis using Nesstar

• Online data browsing and analysis system
• Allows users to search for, locate, browse and
  analyse and download a wide variety of
  statistical data within a web browser
• UK Data Archive, as service provider for ESDS,
  hosts a Nesstar server populated by its most
  popular data series
• Registering with ESDS required, if exploratory
  analysis beyond browsing metadata is intended

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Nesstar

• Browse detailed information (metadata) about
  these data sources, including links to other
  sources
• Do simple data analysis and visualisation on
  microdata
• Bookmark analysis
• Download the appropriate subset of data in one of
  a number of formats (e.g. SPSS, Excel)

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ESDS Nesstar catalogue
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Nesstar - links

• Introductory guide to using Nesstarwww.esds.ac.u
  k/support/guides/A2.pdf
• ESDS Nesstar Cataloguenesstar.esds.ac.uk/webview
  /index.jsp
• NESSTAR guidenesstar.esds.ac.uk/webview/help/inde
  x.html

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Help desk

• Email help_at_esds.ac.uk
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]

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DEMO

• Finding/accessing data
• Online analysis
• User support