Use of HILDA in MITTS

The aim of this project is to update the information used in MITTS to more recent data (from 1997/98 to 2001). This project could be done in two stages, where the progress into the second stage depends on the findings of the first stage. The first stage consists of an exploration of the HILDA data set to determine whether the HILDA data set (covering the year 2001) could be used as input for MITTS. The objective of this stage is to find out whether all necessary variables are available in HILDA and look reliable. Further, the weighted summary statistics of the Survey of Income and Housing Cost 1997/98 (SIHC) and the HILDA will be compared to check for major differences taking into account the different collection periods.

If the use of HILDA in MITTS seems achievable, we can continue with the second stage. The objective of the second stage involves the implementation of HILDA in MITTS. The main objective is to create a procedure that can read in the HILDA data and transform it into records similar to the SIHC records currently in use. In this stage, we would first perform a simple simulation using the labour supply estimates obtained with the SIHC, then re-estimate the labour supply model using a similar specification as for the SIHC data and perform a simple simulation with the new estimates. Finally, we explore the use in the labour supply model of additional information, which is available in HILDA and not in SIHC. The results at the different stages will be compared.

More information about use of HILDA in MITTS (pdf 91KB)

The Melbourne Institute contact for this project is Dr Guyonne Kalb.

The final report has been submitted in the third quarter of 2004.