Volume 21 - Article 6 | Pages 135–176  

Do imputed education histories provide satisfactory results in fertility analysis in the Western German context?

By Cordula Zabel

Abstract

In many surveys, information on respondents’ education histories is restricted to the level and sometimes the date they attained their highest degree. We compare estimates of education effects on first birth transitions using imputed histories based on this rudimentary information with estimates drawing on complete histories, using the German Life History Study. We find that imputed histories produce relatively reliable estimates for most but not all education categories, especially when information on the date the highest degree was attained is available. We investigate possible explanations for these findings and indicate contexts in which biases may be stronger.

Author’s Affiliation

• Cordula Zabel - Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Germany EMAIL

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Changing roles of marriage and family status for labor migration? The case of rural China
Volume 55 - Article 5    | Keywords: cohort trends, event history analysis, gender, labour migration, rural China

Fertility timing and the birth squeeze
Volume 54 - Article 40    | Keywords: birth squeeze, cyclical populations, fertility, marriage, marriage squeeze, stable population

Educational differences in fertility recuperation: The role of partnership trajectories in Spain
Volume 54 - Article 38    | Keywords: births, fertility, partnership trajectories, recuperation, recuperation of births, Spain

Economic resources and parity among US women: A conjoint experiment on preferred family scenarios
Volume 54 - Article 34    | Keywords: conjoint analysis, economic resources, experiments, family, fertility

Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
Volume 54 - Article 29    | Keywords: feature selection, fertility, life course, partnership trajectories, Spain